Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany: in two volumes.. 2

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taatsBibliothel Digitale Bibliothek

Piozzi, Hester Lynch

Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through
France, Italy, and Germany in two volumes

Bd. 2

London 1789

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OBSERVATIONS anp REFLECTIONS

MADE IN THE COURSE OF A

TOU ok Ne

FRANCE, ITALY, anp GERMANY.

By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZL
rs
IN TWO VOLUMES,

We Orin. Hy

5 Aas ane eS

LONDON:
Printed for A. Srranan; and T. Capevz in the Strand.

M DCC LXXXIX.

OBSERVATIONS anp REFLECTIONS

MADE IN A JOURNEY THROUGH ,

France, Italy, and Germany.

IN CAGE Pebiiby si os

N the tenth day of this month we arriv-

ed early at Naples, for I think it was
about two o’clock in the morning; and fure
the providence of God preferved us, for never
was fuch weather feen by me fince I came into
the world; thunder, lightning, ftorm at fea,
rain and wind, contending for maftery, and
combining to extinguifh the torches bought
to light us the laft ftage: Vefuvius, vomiting
fire, and pouring torrents of red hot lava down
its fides, was the only objeé vifible; and
that we faw plainly in the afternoon thirty
miles off, where I afked a Francifcan friar,
If it was the famous volcano? ‘* Yes,” replied
Vou, II, B he,

2 OBSERVATIONS IN A

he, ‘ that’s our mountain, which throws wp
money for us, by calling foreigners to fee the
extraordinary effets of fo furprifing a phx-
nomenon.” The weather was quiet then,
and we had no notion of pafling fuch a hor-
rible night; but an hour after dark, a ftorm
came on, which was really dreadful to endure ;
or even look upon: the blue lightning, whofe
colour fhewed the nature of the original mi-
nerals from which fhe drew her exiftence,
fhone round us in a broad expanfe from time
to time, and fudden darknefs followed in an
inftant: no obje&t then but the fiery river
could be feen, till another flath difcovered the
waves tofling and breaking, at a height I
never faw before.

Nothing fure was ever more fublime or
awful than our entrance into Naples at the
dead hour we arrived, when not a whifper was
to be heard in the ftreets, and not a glimpfe
of light was left to guide us, except the {mall
lamp hung now and then at a high window
before a favourite image of the Virgin.

My poor maid had by this time nearly
loft her wits with terror, and the French
valet, crufhed with fatigue, and covered

with

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3

with rain and fea-fpray, had juft life enough
left to exclaim—“ 4b, Madame ! il me femble
gue nous fommes venus icy expres pour voir la
la fin du monde*.”

The Ville de Londres inn was full,
and could not accommodate our family ;
but calling up the people of the Crocelle,
we obtained a noble apartment, the win-
dows of which look full upon the cele-
brated bay which wafhes the wall at our
door. Caprea lies oppofite the drawing-room
or gallery, which is magnificent; and my
bed-chamber commands a complete view of
the mountain, which I value more, and which
called me the firft night twenty times away
from fleep and fupper, though never fo in
want of both as at that moment furely.

Such were my firft impreffions of this won-
derful metropolis, of which I had been always
reading fummer defcriptions, and had regarded
fomehow as an Hefperian garden, an earthly
paradife, where delicacy and foftnefs fubdued
every danger, and general {weetnefs captivated

* Lord, Madam! why we came here on purpofe fure
to fee the end of the world.

B2 every

4 OBSERVATIONS‘ IN A

“every fenfe ;—nor have I any reafon yet to
fay it will not ftill prove fo, for though wet,
and weary, and hungry, we wanted no fire,
and found only inconvenience from that they
lighted on our arrival. It was the fafhion at
Florence to ftruggle for a Terreno, but here
we are all perched up one hundred and forty
two fteps from the level of the land or fea;
large balconies, apparently well fecured, give
me every enjoyment of a profpeét, which no
repetition can render tedious: and here we
-have agreed to flay till Spring, which, I truft,
will come out in this country as foon as the
new year calls it.

Our eagernefs to fee fights has been re-
prefled at Naples only by finding every thing
a fight; one need not ftir out to look for won-
ders fure, while this amazing mountain con-
tinues to exhibit fuch varions fcenes of fub-
limity and beauty at exactly the diftance one
would chufe to obferve it from; a diftance
which almoft admits examination, and cer-
tainly excludes immediate fear. When “in
the filent night, however, one liftens to its
groaning; while hollow fighs, as of gigantic

forrow,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 5

forrow, are often heard diftinétly in my apart-
ment ; nothing can furpafs one’s fenfations of
amazement, except the con{fcioufnefs that cuf-
tom will abate their keennefs: I have not,
however, yet learned to lie quiet, when co-
lumns of flame, high as the mountain’s {elf,
fhoot from its crater into the clear atmofphere
with a loud and violent noife; nor fhall I ever
forget the {cene it prefented one day to my
aftonifhed eyes, while a thick cloud, charged
heavily with electric matter, pafling over, met
the fiery explofion by mere chance, and went
off in fuch a manner as effeCtually baffles all
verbal defcription, and lafted too fhort a time
for a painter to feize the moment, and imitate
its very ftrange effe&. Monfieur de Vollaire,
however, a native of France, long refident in
this city, has obtained, by perpetual obferva-
tion, a power of reprefenting Vefuvius without
that black fhadow, which others have thought
neceflary to increafe the contraft, but which
greatly takes away all refemblance of its ori-
ginal. Upon reflection it appears to me, that
the men moft famous at London and Paris for
performing tricks with fire have been always
Italians in my ‘time, and commonly Nea-
politans ; no wonder, I fhould think, Naples

B 3 would

6 OBSERVATIONS IN A

would produce prodigious connoifleurs in
this way; we have almoft perpetual light-
ning of various colours, according to the
foil from whence the vapours are exhaled ;
fometimes of a pale ftraw or lemon colour,
often white like artificial fame produced by
camphor, but ofteneft blue, bright as the rays
emitted through the coloured liquors fet in
the window of a chemift’s fhop in London—
and with fuch thunder |! !—“ For God’s fake,
Sir,” faid I to fome of them, “ is there no danger
of the fhips in the harbour here catching fire ?
why we fhould all fly up in the air dire@lly, if
once thefe flafhes fhould communicate to the
room where any of the veffels keep their
powder.”—“* Gunpowder, Madam!” replies
the man, amazed; ‘ why if St. Peter and St.
. Paul came here with gunpowder on board, we
fhould foon drive them out again: don’t you
know,” aded he, “ that every fhip difcharges
her contents at fuch a place (naming it), and
never comes into our port with a grain on
board ?”

The palaces and churches have no fhare in
one’s admiration at Naples, who fcorns to de-~
pend on man, however mighty, however {kil-
ful, for 4er ornaments; while Heaven has

beftowed

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 7

beftowed on her and her covforni all that can
excite aftonifhment,-all that can imprefs awe.
We have {pent three or four days upon Poz-
zuoli and its environs; its cavern fcooped ori~
ginally by nature’s hand, affifted by the armies
of Cocceius Nerva—ever tremendous, ever
gloomy grotto !—which leads to the road that
fhews you Uchia, an old volcano, now an
ifland apparently rent afunder by an earth-
quake, the divifion too plain to beg affiftance
from philofophy: this is commonly called the
Grotto di Pofilippo though; you pafs through
it to go to every place; not without flam-
beaux, if you would go fafely, and avoid the
neceflity the poor are under, who, driving
their carts through the fubterranean paflage,
cry as they meet each other, to avoid joftling,
alla montagna, or alla marina, keep to the rock
fide, ox keep to the fea fide. It is at the right
hand, awhile before you enter this cavern, that
climbing up among a heap of bufhes, you find
a hollow place, and there go down again—it is
the tomb of Virgil; and, for other antiquities,
I recolle& nothing fhewed me when at Rome
that gave me as complete an idea how things
were really carried on in former days, as does
the temple of Shor dpis at Pozzuoli, where

B4 the

8 OBSERVATIONS IN A

the area is exactly all it ever was; the ring
remains where the victim was faftened to; the
priefts apartments, lavatories, &c. the drains
for carrying the beaft’s blood away, all yet
remains as perfect as it is poffiblee The end
of Caligula’s bridge too, but that they fay is
not his bridge, but a mole built by fome fuc-
ceeding emperor—a madder or a wickeder it
could not be—though here Nero bathed, and
here he buried his mother Agrippina. Here
are the centum camera, the prifons employed
by that prince for the cruelleft of purpofes ;
and here are his country palaces referved for
the moft odious ones: here effeminacy learn-
ed to fubfift without delicacy or fhame, hence
honour was excluded by rapacity, and con-
{cience ftupefied by conftant inebriation: here
brainfick folly put nature and common fenfe
upon the rack—Caligula in madnefs courted
the moon to his embraces—and Sylla, fatiated
with blood, retired, and gave a premature ban-
quet to thofe worms he had fo often fed with
the flefh of innocence: here dwelt depravity
in various fhapes, and here Pandora’s cham-
bers left fearcely a Hofe at the bottom that bet-
ter times fhould come :—who can write profe

however

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 9

however in fuch places !—let the impoflibility
of exprefling my thoughts any other way ex-
cufe the following

VERSES.

I,

Firft of Achelous’ blood,

Faireft daughter of the flood,
Queen of the Sicilian fea,
Beauteous, bright Parthenope !
Syren fweet, whofe magic force
Stops the {wifteft in his courfe ;
Wifdom’s felf, when moft fevere,
Longs to lend a lift’ning ear,

Gently dips the fearful oar,
Trembling eyes the tempting fhore,
And fighing quits th’ enervate coaft,
With only half his virtue loft.

Il.

Let thy warm, thy wond’rous clime,
Animate my artlefs rhyme,
Whilft alternate round me rife
Terror, pleafure, and furprife.—
Here th’ aftonifh’d foul furveys
Dread Vefuvius’ awful blaze,
Smoke that to the fky afpires,
Heavy hail of folid fires,
Flames

Nae)

OBSERVATIONS IN A

Flames the fruitful fields o’erflowing,
Ocean with the reflex glowing ;
Thunder, whofe redoubled found
Echoes o’er the vaulted ground !|—
Such thy glories, fuch the gloom
That conceals thy fecret tomb,
Sov’reign of this enchanted fea,
Where funk thy charms, Parthenope,

Ill,

Now by the glimm’ring torch’s ray
I tread Pozzuoli’s cavern’d way—
Hollow grot ! that might befeern
Th’ 4tnean cyclop, Polypheme:
And here the bat at noonday ’bides,
And here the houfelefs beggar hides,
While the holy hermit’s voice
Glads me with accuftom’d noife,
Now I trace, or trav’llers err,
Modeft Maro’s fepulchre,
Where nature, fure of his intent,

Ts ftudious to conceal
That eminence he always meant

We fhould not fee but feel.
While Sannazarius from the fteep
Views, well pleas’d, the fertile deep
Give life to them that feize the fcaly fry,
And to their poet—immortality.

IV

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 1:

IV.

Next beauteous Baia’s warm remains invite
To Nero’s ftoves my wond’ring fight ;
Where palaces and domes deftroy’d
Leave a flat unwholefome void :
Where underneath the cooling wave,
Ordain’d pollution’s fav’rite {pot to lave,
Now hardly heaves the ftifled figh
Hot, hydropic luxury.
Yet, chas’d by Heav’n’s correcting hand,
‘Tho’ various crimes have fled the land;
Tho’ brutifh vice, tyrannic pow’r,
No longer tread the trembling fhore,
Or taint the ambient air ;
By deftiny’s kind care arrang’d,
Th’ inhabitants are fearcely chang’d;
For birds obfcene, and beafts of prey,
‘That feek the night and fhun the day,
Still find a dwelling there,

V.

If then beneath the deep profound

Retires unfeen the flipp’ry ground ;
If melted metals pour’d from high

A verdant mountain grows by time,

Where frifking kids can browze and climb,
And fofter fcenes fupply :

Let us who view the varying {cene,

And tread th’ inftrudtive paths between,

See -

12 OBSERVATIONS IN A
See famifh’d Time his fav’rite fons devour,
Fix’d for an age-—then fwallow’d in an hour;
Let us at leaft be early wife, }
And forward walk with heav’n-fix’d eyes,
Each flow’ry ifle avoid, each rei

defpife ;

Till, fpite of pleafure, fear, or pain,
Eternity’s firm coaft we gain,
Whence looking back with alter’d eye,
Thete fleeting phantoms we’ll defcry,
And find alike the fong and theme
Was but—an empty, airy dream.

When one has exhaufted all the ideas pre-
fented to the mind by the fight of Monte
Nuovo, made in one night by the eruption of
Solfa Terra, now funk into itfelf and almoft
extinguifhed ; by the lake Avernus; by the
Phlegrean fields, where Jupiter killed the
giants, with fuch thunderbolts as fell about our
ears the other night I truft, and buried one of
them alive under mount A‘tna; when one has
feen the Sybil’s grott, and the Elyfian plains,
and every feat of fable and of verfe; when one
has run about repeating Virgil’s verfes and
Claudian’s by turns, and handled the hot
fand under the cool waves of Baia; when one
has feen Cicero’s villa and Diana’s temple, and
talked about antiquities till one is afraid of

one’s

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 13

one’s own pedantry, and tired of every one’s
elfe; it is almoft time to recolle& realities of
more near intereft to fuch of us as are not
afhamed of being Chriftians, and to remem-
ber that it was at Pozzuoli St. Paul arrived
after the ftorms he met with in thefe feas.
The wind is ftill called here Sieuroc, o fia
lo vento Greco; and their manner of pro-
nouncing it led me to think it might poffibly
be that called in Scripture Ewroclydon, abbre-
viated by that grammatical figure, which lops
off the concluding fyllables. The old Paftor
Patrobas too, who received and entertained
the Apoftle here, lies interred under the altar
of an old church at Pozzuoli, made out of the
remains of a temple to Jupiter, whofe pillars
are in good prefervation: I was earneft to fee
the place at leaft, as every thing named in the
New Teftament is of true importance, but
one meets few people of the fame tafte: for
Romanifts take moft delight in venerating
traditionary heroes, and Calvinifts, perhaps
too eafily difgufted, defire to venerate no
heroes at all.

Some curious infcriptions here, to me not
legible, fhew how this poor country has been
5 over-

EE A

SE SIG ES Se gee ge

Sena:

¥4. OBSERVATIONS IN A

overwhelmed by tyrants, earthquakes, Saras
cens! not to mention the Goths and Vandals,
who however left no traces but defolation:
while, as the prophet Joel fays, “ The ground
was as the garden of Eden before them, and
behind them a defolate wilderne/s.

Thefe Mahometan invaders, lefs favage, in
not lefs cruel, afforded at leaft an unwilling thel-
ter in that which is now their capital, for the
wretched remains of literature. To their
mifty envelopement of {cience, fatigued with
firugeling againft perpetual fuffocation, fuc-
ceeded impofture, barbarifm, and credulity;
with fuperftition at their head, who ftill
keeps her footing in this country: and in-
fpires fuch veneration for St. Januarius, his
name, his blood, his ftatue, &c. that the
Neapolitans, who are famous for blafphemous
oaths, and a facility of taking the moft facred
words into their mouths on every, and I may
fay, on 0 occafion, are never heard to repeat
his name without pulling off their hat, or
making fome reverential fign of worfhip at
the moment. And I have feen Italians from
other ftates greatly fhocked at the groflnefs of
thefe their unenlightened neighbours, parti-
cularly the half-Indian cuftom of burning

figures
6

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 15

figures upon their fkins with gunpowder:
thefe figures, large, and oddly difplayed too,

according to the coarfe notions of the wearer.
As the weather is exceedingly warm, and
there is little need of clothing for comfort, our
Lazaroni have {mall care about appearances,
and go with a vaft deal of their perfons un-
covered, except by thefe ftrange ornaments.
The man who rows you about this lovely
bay, has perhaps the angel Raphael, or the
blefled Virgin Mary, delineated on one
brawny fun-burnt leg, the faint of the town
upon the other: his arms reprefent the Glory,
or the feven {pirits of God, or fome ftrange
things, while a brafs medal hangs from his
neck, expreflive of his favourite martyr: whom
they confidently affirm is fo madly venerated
by thefe poor uninftructed mortals, that when
the ‘mountain burns, or any great difafier
threatens them, they beg of our Saviour to
fpeak to St. Januarius in their behalf, and
intreat him not to refufe them his affiftance.
Now though all this was told me by friends
of the Romifh perfuation; and told me too
with a juft horror of the fuperftitious folly ;
I think my remarks and inferences were not
agreeable to. them, when exprefling my
notion

16 OBSERVATIONS IN A

notion that it was only a relick of the adora-
tion originally paid to Janus in Italy, where
the ground yielding up its froft to the foft
breath of the new year, is not ill-typified by
the liquefaGtion of the blood; a ceremony
which has fucceeded to various Pagan ones
celebrated by Ovid in the firft book of his
Fafti. We know from hiftory too, that per-
fumes were offered in ‘anuary always, to
fignify the renovation of /zeets; and this
was fo neceflary, that I think Tacitus tells us
Thrafea was firft impeached for abfence at
the time of the new year, when in Yanus’s
prefence, &c. good wifhes were formed for
the Emperor’s felicity; and no word of ill
omen was to be pronounced.—Cautum erat
apud Romanos ne quod mali ominis verbum
calendis Januariis efferretur; fays Pliny:
and the /firenz, or new-years gifts, called
now by the French “ les efrennes,” and
practifed by Lutherans as well as Romanifts,
is the felf-fame veneration of old ‘Yanus, if
fairly traced up to Tatius King of the Sa-
bines, who fought a laurel bough plucked
from the grove of the goddefs Strenwia, or
Strenua, and prefented it to his favourites on
the firft of January, from whence the cuftom

arole ;

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY.

arofe ;\ and Symmachus, in his tenth book,
twenty-eighth epiftle, mentions it clearly
when writing to the Emperors Theodolius
and Arcadius—“ Strenuarum w/us adolevit
auttoritate Latii regis, gui verbenas felicis
arboris ex lico Strenue anni.”

Odtavius Czefar took the name of Auguftus
on the firft of January in Janus’s temple, by
Planciis’s advice, as a lucky day; and I fup-
pofe our new-year’s ode, fung before the
King of England, may be derived from the
fame fource. The old Fathers of the Church
declaimed aloud againft the cuftom of new-
years gifts, becaufe they confidered them as
of Pagan original. So much for Les Etrennes.

As to St. Yanuarius, there certainly was
a martyr of that name at Naples, and to him was
transferred much of the veneration originally
beftowed_ on the deity from whom he was
probably named. One need not however wan-
der round the world with Banks and Solander,
or flare fo at the accounts given us in Cook’s
Voyages of fattowed Indians, when Naples
will fhew one the effects of a like operation,
very very little better executed, on the broad
fhoulders of numberlefs Lazaroni; and of this
there is no need to examine books for in-

Vo. Il. (5;

forma-

18 OBSERVATIONS IN A

formation, he who runs over the Chiaja may
read in large charaGters the grofs fuperftition
of the Napolitani, who have no inclination
to lofe their old claffical charaéter for lazi-
ne{s—

Et in otia natany

Parthenopen ;

fays Ovid. I wonder however whether our
people would work much furrounded by
fimilar circumftances ; I fancy not: Englifh-
men, poor fellows! muft either work or
ftarve; thefe folks want for nothing: a houfe
would be an inconvenience to them; they
like to fleep out of doors, and it is plain they
have {mall care for clothing, as many who:
poflefs decent habiliments enough, I fpeak
of the Lazaroni, throw almoft all off till fome
holiday, or time of gala, and fit by the fea-
fide playing at moro with their fingers.

A Florentine nobleman told me once, that
he afked one of thefe fellows to carry his
portmanteau for him, and offered him a car-
4ne, no fmalf fum certainly to a Neapolitan,
and rather more in proportion than an Eng-
lith fhilling; he had not twenty yards to go
with it: “ dre you hungry, Mafter?” cries
the fellow. “ No,” replied Gount Manucci,

but’

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 19

* but what of that ?”’— Why then no more
am I; was the anfwer, “ and it is too hot
aweather to carry burthens ?’ fo turned about
upon the other fide, and lay fill.

This clafs of people, amounting to a num-
ber that terrifies one but to think on, fome
fay fixty thoufand fouls, and experience
confirms no lefs, give the city an air of
gaiety and cheerfulnefs, and one cannot help
honeftly rejoicing in. The Strada del Toledo
is one continual crowd: nothing can exceed
the confufion to a walker, and here are little
gigs drawn by one horfe, which, without any
bit in his mouth, but a ftring tied round his
nofe, tears along with inconceivable rapidity a
{mall narrow gilt chair, fet between the two
wheels, and no {pring to it, nor any thing
elfe which can add to the weight; and this
flying car is a kind of facre you pay fo much
for a drive in, I forget the fum.

Horfes are particularly handfome in this
town, not fo large as at Milan, but very
beautiful and fpirited; the cream-coloured
creatures, fuch as draw our king’s ftate coach,
are a common breed‘here, and thine like
fattin: here are fome too of a fhining filver

C 2 white,

29 OBSERVATIONS IN A

white, wonderfully elegant; and the ladies
upon the Corfo exhibit a variety fcarcely cre-
dible in the colour of their cattle which draw
them: but the coaches, harnefs, trappings,
&c. are vaftly inferior to the Milanefe, whofe
liveries are often {plendid; whereas the four
or five ill-drefled ftrange-looking fellows that
difgrace the Neapolitan equipages feem to be
valued only for their number, and have very
often much the air of Sir John Falftaff’s re-
cruits.

Yefterday however fhewed. me what I
knew not had exifted—a fkew-ball or pye-
balled afs, eminently well-proportioned,
coated like a racer in an Englifh ftud, fixteen
hands and a half high, his colour bay and
white in large patches, and his temper, as the
proprietor told me, fingularly docile and
gentle. I have longed perhaps to purchafe
few things in my life more earneftly than
this beautiful and ufeful animal, which I
might have had too for two pounds fifteen
fhillings Englifh, but dared not, left like
Dogberry I fhould have been written down —
for an afs by my merry country folks, who,
T remember, could not let the Queen of

England

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 21

England herfelf poffefs in peace a creature
of the fame kind, but handfomer flill, and
from a ftill hotter climate, called the Zebra.

Apropos to quadrupeds, when Portia, in
the Merchant of Venice, enumerates her
lovers, fhe names the Neapolitan prince firft;
who, fhe fays, does nothing, for his part, but
talk of his horfe, and makes it his greateft
boaft that he can fhoe him himfelf. This is
almoft literally true of a nobleman here; and
they really do not throw their pains away ;
for it is furprifing to fee what command they
have their cattle in, though bits are fearcely
ufed among them.

The coat armour of Naples confifts of an
unbridled horfe ; and by what I can make
out of their character, they much refemble
him ;

Qualis ubi abruptis fugit preefeepia vinclis
Yandem liber equus, &c. &c. &c.* 5

generous and gay; headftrong and violent in
their difpofition; eafy to turn, but difficult

* Freed from his keepers thus with broken reins
The wanton courfer prances o’er the plains.
\ DRYDEN.

C3 to

2.2 OBSERVATIONS IN A

to ftop. No authority is refpetted by them
when fome ftrong paflion animates them to
fury : yet lazily quiet, and unwilling to ftir
till accident roufes them to terror, or rage
urges them forward to incredible. exertions of
fuddenly-beftowed ftrength. In the eruption
of 1779, their fears and fuperftitions rofe to
fuch a height, that they feized the French
ambaflador upon the bridge, tore him al-
moft out of his carriage as he fled from Por-
ticl, and was met by them upon the Ponte
della Maddalena, where they threatened him
with inftant death if he did not get out of
his carriage, and proftrating himfelf before
the flatue of St. Januarius, which ftands there,
intreat his protection for the city. All this,
however, Monf. le Comte de Clermont D’Am-
boife did not comprehend a word of ; but tak~
ing all the money out of his pocket, threw
it down, happily for him, at the feet of the
figure, and pacified them at once, gaining
time by thofe means‘to efcape their vengeance.
It was, I think, upon fome other occafion
that Sir William Hamilton’s book relates their
unworthy treatment of the venerable Arch-
bifhop, who refufed them the relicks with
which

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 23

which they had no doubt of faving the me-
naced town; but every time Vefuvius burns
with danger to the city, they fcruple not to
infult their Sovereign as he flies from it;
throwing large ftones after his chariot, guards,
&c.; making the infurrection, it is fure to
occafion, more perilous, if poflible, than the
volcano itfelf. And laft night when La Mon-
tagna fu cattiva*, as their expreflion was,
our Laquais de Place obferved that it might
poflibly be becaufe fo many hereticks and un-
believers had been up it the day before.
* Oh! let us,” as King David wifely chofe,
* fallinto the hands of God—not into thofe of
“ man.”

I wifhed exceedingly to purchafe here the
genuine account of Maffaniello’s far-famed
{edition and revolt, more dreadful in a certain
way than any of the earthquakes which have
at different times fhaken this hollow-founded
country. But my friends here tell me it was
{uppreffed, and burned by the hands of the
common executioner, with many chaftife-
ments befide beftowed upon the writer, who
tried to efeape, but found it more prudent
to. fubmit to juftice.

* When the mountain was in z/l-humour.

C4 Thomas

24 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Thomas Agnello was the unluckily-adapted
name of the mad fifherman who headed the
mob on that truly memorable occafion ; but
it isnot an unufual thing here to cut off the
firft fyllable, and by the figure apherefis alter
the appellation entirely. By that device of
dropping the fo, he has been called Mafla-
niello ; and this is one of their methods to
render the patois of Naples as unintelligible to
us, as if we had never feen Italy till now ;
and one is above all things tormented with
their way of pronouncing names, Here are
Don and Donna again at this town as at Mi-
lan however, becaufe the King of Spain, or
Ré Cattolico, as thefe people always call him,
has flill much influence; and they feem to
think nearly as refpectfully of him as of their
own immediate fovereign, who is however
greatly beloved among them; and fo he
ougl. to be, for he is the reprefentative of
them all. He rides and rows, and hunts the.
wild boar, and catches fifh in the bay, and
fells it in the market, as dear as he can too;
but gives away the money they pay him for
it, and that dire€tly : fo that no fufpicion of
meanne(s, or of any thing worfe than a little

rough

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 2g

rough merriment can be ever attached to his

truly-honeft, open, undefigning character.
Stories of monarchs feldom give me plea-
fure,who feldom am perfuaded to give credit to
tales told of perfons few people have any
accefs to, aud whofe behaviour towards
thofe few is circumf{cribed within the laws of
infipid and dull routine ; but this prince lives
among his fubjeéts with the old Roman
idea of a window before his bofom I believe.
They know the worft of him is that he fhoots
at the birds, dances with the girls, eats ma-
caroni, and helps himfelf to it with his fin-
gers, and rows again{ft the watermen in the
bay, till one of them burft out o’bleeding at
the nofe laft week, with his uncourtly efforts to
outdo the King, who won the trifling wager
by this accident: conquered, laughed, and
leaped on fhore amidft the acclamations of the
populace, who huzzaed him home to the pa-
lace, from whence he fent double the fum he
had won to the waterman’s wife and chil-
dren, with other tokens of kindnefs. Mean
time, while he refolves to be happy himfelf,
he is equally determined to make no man
yniferable. ;
When

26 OBSERVATIONS INA

When the Emperor and the Grand Duke
talked to him of their new projects for reform~
ation in the church, he told them he faw
little advantage they brought into ¢heir ftates
by thefe new-fangled notions; that when he
was at Florence and Milan, the deuce a Nea-
politan could he find in either, while his ca-
pital was crowded with refugees from thence ;
that in fhort they might do ‘heir way, but he
would do his ; that he had not now an enemy
in the world, public or private; and that he
would not make himfelf any for the fake of
propagating doétrines he did not underftand,
and would not take the trouble to ftudy : that
he fhould fay his prayers as he ufed to do, ©
and had no doubt of their being heard, while
he only begged bleflings on his beloved peo-
ple. So if thefe wife brothers-in-law would
learn of him to enjoy life, inftead of fhorten-
ing it by unneceflary cares, he invited them
to fee him the next morning play a great
match at tennis. :

The truth is, the jolly Neapolitanslead a coarfe
life, but it is an unoppreffed one. Never fure
was there in any town a greater fhew of
abundance: no fettled market in any given
place, I think, but every third fhop full of

what

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 27

what the French call fo properly ammunition de
Bouche, while whole boars, kids and fmall
calves dangle from a fort of neat {caffolding,
all with their fkins on, and make a pretty ap-
pearance. Poulterers hang up their animals
in the feathers too, not lay them on boards
plucked, as at London or Venice.

The Strada del Toledo is at leaft as long as
Oxford Road, and ftraight as Bond-ftreet,
very wide too, the houfes all of ftone, and at
leaft eight ftorieshigh. Over the fhops live
people of fafhion I am told, but the perfons
of particularly high quality have their palaces
in other parts of the town; which town at
laft is not a large one, but full as an egg:
and Mr. Clarke, the antiquarian, who refides
here always, informed me that the late dif-
trefles in Calabria had driven many families to
Naples this year, befide fingle wanderers in-
numerable ; which wonderfully increafed the
daily throng one fees pafling and repailing.
To hear the Lazaroni fhout and bawl about
the ftreets night and day, one would really
fancy one’s felf in a femi-barbarous nation ;
and a Milanefe officer, who has lived long
among them, protefted that the manners of
the great correfponded in every refpect with

the

28 OBSERVATIONS IN A

the idea given of them by the little. His ac-
count of female conduc, and that even in the
| very high ranks, was fuch'as reminded me of
| Queen Oberea’s fincerity, when Sir Jofeph
Banks joked her about Otoroo. It is how-
ever obfervable, and furely very praife-
worthy, that if the Italians are not afhamed of
their crimes, neither are they afhamed of their

contrition, I faw this very morning an odd
fcene at church, which, though new to me;

nee

appeared, perhaps from its frequent repetition,
to ftrike no one but myfelf.

A lady with a long white drefs, and veiled,
came in her carriage, which waited for her

SSS

at the door, with her own arms upon it, and
three fervants better drefled than is common
here, followed and put a lighted taper in her
hand. a cet etdt,as the French fay, fhe °
moved flowly up the church, looking like
Jane Shore in the laft a&, but not fo feeble;
and being arrived at the fleps of the high
altar, threw herfelf quite upon her face before
it, remaining proftrate there at leaft five mi-
; nutes, in the face of the whole congrega-

hy tion, who, equally to my amazement, neither
i flared nor fneered, neither laughed nor la-
mented,

==

= é = —

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. © 29

mented, but minded their own private de-
votions—no mafs was faying—till the lady
rofe, kiffed the fteps, and bathed them with
her tears, mingled with fobs of no affected
or hypocritical penitence Lam fure. Retiring
afterwards to her own feat, where fhe waited
with others the commencement of the facred
office, having extinguifhed her candle, and ap-
parently lighted her heart; I felt mine quite
penetrated by her behaviour, and fancied her
like our firft parent defcribed by Milton in
the fame manner:

To confefs
Humbly her faults, and pardon beg ; with tears
Watering the ground, and with her fighs the air
Frequenting, fent from heart contrite, in fign
OF forrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek.

Let not this ftory, however, miflead any
one to think that more general decorum or »
true devotion can be found in churches of the
Romifh perfuafion than in ours—quite the re-
verfe. This burft of penitential piety was
in itfelf an indecorous thing; but it is the

nature and genius of the people not to mind |
6 {malt

'
'
'
t

30 OBSERVATIONS IN A

{mall matters. Dogs are fuffered to rut
about and dirty the churches all the time
divine fervice is performing ; while the crying
of babies, and the moft indecent methods
taken by the women to pacify them, give one
till jufter offence. ‘There is no treading for
fpittle and naftinefs of one fort or another, in
all the churches of Italy, whofe inhabitants
allow the filthinefs of Naples, but endeavour
to juftify the diforders of other cities ; though
I do believe nothing ever equalled the Chiefa
de Cavalieri at Pifa, in any Chriftian land.
Santa Giuftina at Padua, the Redentore at
Venice, St Peter’s at Rome, and fome of the
leaft frequented churches at Milan, are excep-
tions; they are kept very clean, and do not,
by the fcandalous neglect of thofe appointed
to keep them, difgrace the beauty of their
buildings.

Here has, however, been a dreadful acci-
dent which puts fuch flight confiderations out
of one’s head. A Friar has killed a woman
in the church juft by the Crocelle inn, for
having xrefufed him favours he fufpeéted fhe
had granted to another. No ftep is taken
though towards punifhing the murderer, be-

caufe

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3

caufe he is religio/o, ¢ di piu cavaliere. What
a miracle that more fuch outrages are not
daily committed in a country where profeffion
of fandtity, and real high birth, are protections
from law and juftice! Surely nothing but
perfect fobriety and great goodnefs of difpo-
fition can be alleged as a reafon why worfe
isnot done every day. I faid fo to a gentle-
man juft now, who affured me the criminal
would not efcape very fevere caftigation ; and
that perhaps the convent would infli& fuch
feverities upon that gentleman as would amply
fupply the want of activity in the exertion
of civil power.

Itis a ftupid thing not to mention the
common drefs of the ordinary women here,
which ladies likewife adopt, if they venture
out on foot, defiring not to be known. Two
black filk petticoats then ferve entirely to con-
ceal their whole figure; as when both are
tied round their waift, one is fuddenly turned
up, and as they pull it quick over their heads,

-a loofe trimming of narrow black gauze drops
ever the face, while a hook and eye faftens
all clofe under the chin, and gives them an
ait not unlike our country wenches, who

4 throw

32 OBSERVATIONS IN A

throw the gown tail over their heads, to prés
tet them from a fummer’s fhower. The ho-
liday drefles mean time of the peafants round
Naples, are very rich and cumberfome. One
often fees a great coarfe raw-boned fellow on
a Sunday, panting for heat under a thick blue
velvet coat comically enough; the females
in a f{carlet cloth petticoat, with a broad gold
lace at the bottom, a jacket open before, but
charged with heavy ornaments, and the head
not unbecomingly dreffed with an embroide-
red handkerchief from Turkey, exatly as one
fees them reprefented here in prints, which
they fell dear enough, God knows; and afk,
as [am informed by the purchafers, not twice
or thrice, but four or five times more than
at laft they take, as indeed for every thing
one buys here: One portrait is better, how-
ever, than a thoufand words, when {ingle
figures are to be delineated ; but of the Grotta
del Cane, defcription gives a completer idea
than drawing. Both are perhaps nearly un-
neceflary indeed, when fpeaking of a place fo
often and fo accurately defcribed. What
furprifed me moft among the ceremonies. of
this extraordinary place was, that the pent up

vapour

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 33

vapour fhut in an excavation of the rock,
fhould, upon opening the door, gradually
move forwards a few yards, but not rife up
above a foot from the furface, nor, by what
I could obferve, ever diflipate in air; I think
we left it hovering over thg favourite f{pot,
when the poor cur’s nofe had been forcibly
held in it for a minute or two, but he took
care after his recovery to keep a very judi-
cious diftance. Sporting with animal life is
always highly offenfive ; and the fellow’s ac-
count that his dog was ufed to the operation,
and had already gone through it eight times,
that it did him no harm, &c. I confidered as
words ufed merely to quiet our impatience of
the experiment, which is infinitely more amu-
fing when tried upon a lighted flambeau, ex-
tinguifhing it moft completely in a moment.
What connection there is between flame and
vitality, thofe who know more of the matter
than I do, muft expound. , Certain it is, that
many forts of vapour are equally fatal to both;
and where fermentation is either going for-
ward, or has lately been, people accuftomed
to fuch matters always try with a candle whe-
ther the cafk is approachable by man or not ;

Vot. II. Dp and

34 OBSERVATIONS IN A
and I once faw a terrifying accident arife in @
great brewhoufe, from the headftrong ftupi-
dity of a workman who would go down inte
a vat, the contents of which had lately been
drawn off, without fending his proper prz-
eurfor the candlt, to enquire if all was fafe.
The confequence was half expected by his
companions, who hearing him drop off the
fteps, and fall flat to the bottom, began in-
ftantly hooking him up again, but there were
no figns of life; fome ran for their mafter,
others for a furgeon, but we were neareft at
hand, and recolle€ting what one had read of
the recovery of dogs at Naples, by tofling
them fuddenly into the lake Agnano, we
made the men carry their patient to the cooler,
and plunging him over head and ears, re-
ftored his life, exactly in the manner of the
Grotta del Cane experiment, which fucceeded
fo completely in this fellow’s cafe, I remember,
that waking after the temporary fufpenfion,.
we had much ado to imprefs fo infenfible a
mortal with a due fenfe of the danger his
rafhnefs had incurred.

But it is time to tell of Herculaneum, Pom-
peia, and Portici; of a theatre, the fcene of

7 gaiety

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 45

gaiety and pleafure, overwhelmed by torrents
of liquid fire! the inhabitants of a whole town
furprifed by immediate and unavoidable de-
{tru€tion! Where that very town indeed was
built with the lava produced by former erup-
tions, one would think it fcarce poflible that fuch
calamities could be totally unexpected ;—but
no matter, life muft go on, though we all know
death is coming ;—fo the bread was baking in
their ovens, the meat was {moking on their
dithes, fome of their wine already decanted for
ufe, the reft in large jars (amphora), now
petrified with their contents infide, and fixed
to the walls of the cellars in which they ftand.
—How dreadful are the thoughts which fuch
a fight fuggefts! how very horrible the cer-
tainty, that fuch a fcene may be all acted over
again to-morrow ; and that we, who to-day
are fpeCtators, may become {pectacles to tra-
vellers of a fucceeding century, who miftaking
our bones for thofe of the Neapolitans, may
carry fome of them to their native country
back again perhaps ; .as it came into my head
that a French gentleman was doing, when I
faw him put a human bone into his pocket
‘ this morning, and told him I hoped he had
D2 got

ae

36 OBSERVATIONS IN &A

got the jaw of a Gaulifh officer, inftead of a
Roman foldier, for future refleCtions to ener=
gize upon. Of all fingle objets offered here
to one’s contemplation, none are more ftriking
than a woman’s foot, the frit of her foot I
mean, taken apparently in the very ad& of
running from the river of melted minerals that
furrounded her, and which now ferves as an
intaglio to commemorate the mifery it caufed.
Another melancholy proof of what needs no
confirmation, is the impreffion of a fick fe-
male, known to be fo from the /fole fhe wore,
a drapery peculiar to the fex; her bed, con-
verted into a fubftance like plafter of Paris,
fill retains the form and covering of her who
perifhed quietly upon it, without ever making
even an effort to efcape.

That one of thefe towns is crufhed, or
rather buried, under loads of heavy lava, and is
therefore difficult to difentangle, all have
heard ; that Pompeia is only lightly covered
with pumice-ftones and afhes, is new to no-
body; it is in the power, as a Venetian gen-
tleman faid angrily, of an Englifh hen and
chickens to fcratch it open in a week, though
thefe lazy Neapolitans will leave it not half

diflodged,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 39
diflodged, before a new eruption fwallows all
again.

Our vifit to Portici was more than equally
provoking in the fame way; to fee de-
pofited there all the antiques which are fo
curious in themfelves, fo very valuable when
confidered as fpecimens of ancient art, and of
the mode of living practifed in ancient Rome,
kept at a place where I do fincerely believe
they will be again overwhelmed and con-
founded among the king of Naples’s furniture,
to the great torture of future antiquarians, and
to the difgrace of prefent infenfibility.

The ¢riclinia and fibadia uled at fupper by
the old Romans prove the verfes which our
critics have been working at fo long, to have
been at leaft well «plained by them, and do
infinite honour to thofe who, without the ad-
vantage of feeing how the utenfils were con-
ftructed, knew perfectly well their way of car-
rying on life, from their acquaintance with a
language long fince dead, and I am fure buried
under a heap of rubbifh heavier and more
difficult to remove than all the lava heaped on
Herculaneum ; but it is a fource of perpetual
wonder, and let me add perpetual pleafure too,
to know that Cicero, and Virgil, and Horace,

D3 if

38 OBSERVATIONS IN A

if alive, would find their writings as well un-
derfiood, ay and as perfeétly tafted, by the
f{cholars of Paris and London, as they had ever
been by their own old literary acquaintance.
The fight of the curule chair was charm-
ing, and one thought of old Papyrius,
his long white beard, and ivory ftick with
which he reproved the infolence of a Gaulifh
foldier, who, when Brennus entered the city,
feeing all thofe venerable fenators fitting in a
row, took them for inanimate. figures, and
ftroked Papyrius’s beard, to feel whether he
was alive or no. The curule chair was fo
called from cwrrus a chariot, and this we ex~
amined had holes bored in it, where it had
been fixed to the car: I do think there is juft
fuch a one in the Britifle Mufeum, but that
did not much engage my attention, fo great is
the influence of locality upon the mind. The
way in which they decypher the old MSs,
here likewife is pretty and curious, and re-
quires infinite patience, which as far as they
have gone has not been well repaid; the
operation Laboriofius eff quam Sibylle folia col=
licere*, to ufe the words of Politian, whofe

* More laborious than gathering up the Sibyls leaves.

right

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 39

right name I learned at Florence to be Meer
Angelo di Monte Pulciano.

May not, however, a more important con-
fequence than any yet mentioned be found
deducible from what we have feen this day?
for if Yefus Chri? condefcended to ufe the
Romaa,*or commonly adopted cuftom of fup-
ping on a /riclinium (as it is plain he did by
the recumbent pofture of St. John), when
eating the Paflover for the laft time with his
difciples at Jerufalem; that fe& of Chriftians
called Romanifts ought fure to be the /af,
not jirff, to exclude from falvation all fuch of
their brethren as do not receive the Lord’s
Supper precifely in their way; when nothing
can be clearer, from our bleffed Saviour’s ex-
ample, than that he thought old forms, if
laudable, not neceffary or effential to the well-
performing a devotional rite; feeing that to
eat the Paffover according to original inftitu-
tion, thofe who communicated were bound to
take it fanding, and with a ftaff in their hands
befide as expreflive of more hafte.

The Chriftmas feafon here at Naples is very
pleafingly obferved ; the Italians are peculiarly
ingenious in adorning their fhops I think, and

D4 fetting

40 OBSERVATIONS IN A

fetting out their wares; every grocer, fruit-
erer, &cc. now mingles orange, and lemon,
and myrtle leaves, among the goods expofed
at his door, as we do greens in the churches
of England, but with infinitely more tafte; and
this device produces a very fine effect upon the
whole, as one drives along /a Strada del Toledo,
which all morning looks fhowy from thefe
decorations, and all evening f{plendid from the
profufion of torches, flambeaux, &c. that
fhine with lefs regularity indeed, but with
more luftre and greater appearance of expen-
five gaiety, than our neat, clean, fteady London
lamps. Some odd, pretty, moveable coffee-
houfes too, or lemonade-fhops, fet on wheels,
and adorned, according to the pofleflor’s tafte,
with gilding, painting, &c. and covered with
ices, orgeats, and other refrefhments, as in
emulation each of the other, and in a flrange
variety of fhapes and forms too, exquifitely
well imagined for the moft part,—help for-
ward the finery of Naples exceedingly: I
have counted thirty of thefe ga/ante fhops on
each fide the ftreet, which, with their neceflary
illuminations, make a brilliant figure by candle-
light, till twelve o’clock, when all the fhow is
over, and every body put out their lights and
' quietly

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 41

quietly lie down to reft. Till that hour, how=
ever, few things can exceed the tumultuous
merriment of Naples, while vo/antes, or run-
ning footmen, drefled like tumblers before a
fhow, precede all carriages of diftinétion, and
endeavour to keep the people from being run
over; yet whilft they are liftening to Polici-
nello’s jokes, or to fome fuch ftreet orator as
Dr. Moore defcribes with equal truth and hu-
mour, they often get crufhed and killed; yet,
as Pope fays,

See fome ftrange comfort ev’ry ftate attend :—

The Lazaroni who has his child run over by
the coach of a man of quality, has a regular
claim upon him for no lefs than twelve carlines
(about five fhillings Englifh) ; if it is his wife
that meets with the accident, he gets two
ducats, live or die; and for the mafter of the
family (houfe he has none) three is the regular
compenfation ; and no words pafs here about
trifles. Truth is, human life is lower rated in
all parts of Italy than with us; they think
nothing of an individual, but fee him perifh
(excepting by the hand of juftice) as a cat
or dog. A young man fell from our car-
triage at Milan one evening; he was not a

fervant

42 OBSERVATIONS IN A

fervant of ours, but a friend which, after we were
gone home, the coachman had picked up to Zo
with him to the fireworks which were exhi-
bited that night near the Cor/o there was a
crowd and an embarras, and the fellow tum-
bled off and died upon the fpot, and nobody
even {poke, or I believe thought about the
matter, except one woman, who {uppofed that
he had neglected to crofs himfelf when he got
up behind.

The works of art here at Naples are neither
very numerous nor very excellent: I have
feen the vaunted prefent of porcelain intended
for the king of England, in return for fome
cannon prefented by him to this court; and
think it more entertaining in its defign than
admirable as a manufacture. Every difh and
plate, however, being the portrait as one may
fay of fome famous Etrufcan vafe, or other
antique, dug out of the ruins of thefe newly-
difcovered cities, with an account of its fup-
poted {tory engraved neatly round the figure,
makes it interefting and elegant, and worthy
enough of one prince to accept, and another
to beftow.

There is a work of art, however, peculiar

to this city, ard attempted in no other; on
which

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 43

which furprifing fums of money are lavithed
by many of the inhabitants, who conne& or
aflociate to this amufement ideas of piety and
devotion : the thing when finifhed is called a
prefepio, and is compofed in honour of this
facred feafon, after which all is taken to
pieces, and arranged after a different manner
next year. In many houfes a room, in fome
a whole fuite of apartments, in others the ter-
race upon the houfe-top, is dedicated to this
very uncommon fhow; confifting of a mi-
niature reprefentation in fycamore wood, pro-
perly coloured, of the houfe at Bethlehem,
with the blefled Virgin, St. Jofeph, and our
Saviour in the manger, with attendant an-
gels, &c. as in pictures of the nativity ; the
figures are about fix inches high, and drefied
with the moft exact propriety. This how-
ever, though the principal thing intended to
attract {fpectators’ notice, is kept back, fo that
fometimes I fearcely faw it at all; while a ge-
neral and excellent landfcape, with figures of
men at work, women drefling dinner, a
long road in real gravel, with rocks, hills,
rivers, cattle, camels, every thing that can be
imagined, fill the other rooms, fo happily dif-

pofed

44 OBSERVATIONS IN A

pofed too for the moft part, the light intro-
duced fo artfully, the perfpe@tive kept fo fur-
prifingly !—one wonders and cries out, it is
certainly but a baby-houfe at beft; yet ma-
naged by people whofe heads naturally turned ,
towards architecture and defign, give them
power thus to defy a traveller not to feel de-
lighted with the general effet ; while if every
fingle figure is not capitally executed, and
nicely expreffed befide, the proprietor is truly
miferable, and will cut a new cow, or vary the
horfe’s attitude, againft next Chriftmas cozte
gui coiite : and perhaps I fhould not have faid
fo much about the matter, if there had not
been {hewn me within this laft week, pre/epios
which have coft their pofleffors fifteen hundred
or two thoufand Englifh pounds; and, rather
than relinquith or fell them, many families have
gone to ruin: I have wrote the fums down in
letters, not figures, for fear of the poffibility of
a miftake. One of thefe playthings had the
journey of the three kings reprefented in it,
and the prefents were all of real gold and
filver finely worked ; nothing could be better
or more livelily finifhed.—“ But, Sir,”. faid I,
“ why do you drefs up one of the Wife Men

with

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 45

with a turban and crefcent, fix hundred years
before the birth of Mahomet, who firft put
that mark in the forehead of his followers?
The eaftern Magi were not Zurks; this is a
breach of coffume.” My gentleman paufed,
and thanked me; faid he would enquire it
there was nothing heretical in the objection ;
and if all was right, it fhould be changed
next year without fail.

A young lady here of Englifh parents,
juft ten years old, afked me, very pertinently,
“ Why this pretty fight was called a Pre-
fepio?” but faid fhe fuddenly, anfwering
herfelf, “ I fuppofe it is becaufe it is pre-
ceptive:” fuch a miftake was more valuable
than knowledge, and gave me great efteem
of her underftanding ; the little girl’s name
was Zaffory.

The King’s menagerie is neither rich in
animals, nor particularly well kept: I won-
der a man of his character and difpofition
fhould not delight in poffefling a very fine
one. The bears however were as tame as
Japdogs; there was a wolf too, larger than
ever I faw a wolf, and an elephant that played
a hundred tricks at the command of his

keeper,

46 OBSERVATIONS IN A

keeper, little lefs a beaft than he; but as
Pope fays, after Horace,

Let bear or elephant be e’er fo white,
The people fure, the people are the fight.

Let us then tell about the two affemblics,

o fia converfaziont, where one goes in fearch
of amufement as to the rooms of Bath or
Tunbridge exa&tly; only that one of thefe
places is devoted to the zodiltd, the other is
called de’ buoni amici; and fuch is the ftate of
fubordination in this country, that though
the great people may come among the little
ones, and be fure of the groffeft adulation,
a merchants wife, fhining in diamonds,
being obliged to fland up reverentially before
the chair of a countefs, who does her the
honour to fpeak to her; the poor amici are
totally excluded from the fubfcription of the
nobles, nor dare even to return the falutation
of a fuperior, fhould a good-natured perfon
of that rank be tempted, from frequently fee-
ing them at the rooms, to give them a kind
nod in the ftreet or elfewhere. All this feems
comical enough to us, and I had much ado
to look grave, while a beautiful and well-
educated

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 47

educated wife of a rich banker here, confefled
herfelf not fit company for an ignorant mean-
looking woman of quality. But though fuch
unintelligible doctrines make one for a mo-
ment afhamed both of one’s fex and fpecies,
that lady’s knowledge of various languages,
her numerous accomplifhments in a thoufand
methods of pafling time away with innocent
elegance, and a fort of fludied addrefs never
obferved in Italy before, gave me infinite
delight in her fociety, and daily increafed
my fufpicion that fhe was a foreigner, till
nearer intimacy difeovered her a German
Lutheran, with a fingular head of thick
blonde hair, fo unlike thofe I fee around me.
We grew daily better acquainted, and fhe
fhewed me—but not indignantly at all—fome
ladies from the higher aflembly fitting among
thefe, very low drefled indeed, a knotting-
bag and counters in their lap, to fhew their
contempt of the company; while fuch as
fpoke to them ftood before their feat, like
children before a governefs in England, as
long as the converfation lafted.

I inquired if the men confined their ad-
drefles wholly to their own rank? She faid,
beauty often broke the barrier, and when

& a pretty

48 OBSERVATIONS IN A

a pretty woman of the fecond rank got a
cavalier fervente of the firft, much happinefs
and much diftin@ion was the confequence:
but alas! he will not even /ry to puih her up
among the people of fafhion, and when he
meets any is fure to look afhamed of his
miftrefs; fo that her felicity can confift only
in triumphing over equals, for to rival a
fuperior is here an impoffibility.

Our Duke and Dutchefs of Cumberland
have made all Naples adore them though, by
going richly dreffed, and behaving with in-
finite courtefy and good-humour, at an af-
fembly or ball given in the ower rooms, as
the Englifh comically call them. A young
Palermitan prince applauded them for it ex-
ceedingly ; fo I took the liberty to exprefs
my wonder. “ Oh,’ replied he, “ we are not
ignorant how much Englifh manners differ
from our own: I have already, though but
juft eighteen years old, as fovereign of my
own ftate, under the King of both Sicilies,
condemned a man to death decaufe he was a
rafcal, but the law and the people govern
in England I_know.” My delire of hearing
about Sicily, which we could not contrive to
vifit, made me happy to cultivate Prince

Venti-

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 49

Ventimiglia’s acquaintance; he was very
ftudious, very learned of his age, and un-
commonly clever: told me of the antiquities
his ifland had to boaft, with great intelli-
gence, and a furprifing knowledge of ancient
hiftory.

We wifhed to have made a party to go in
the fame company to Paftum, but my cow-
ardice kept me at home, fo bad was the account
of the roads and accommodation; though
Abate Bianconi of Milan, for whom I have fo
much efteem, bid me remember to look at the
buildings there attentively ; adding, that they
were better worth our obfervation than all
the boafted antiquities at Rome; “ as they
had feen (faid he) the original foundation
of her empire, and outlived its decay: that
they had {een her fecond birth too, and
power under fome of her pontiffs over all
Europe abcut fix or feven centuries ago; and
that they would now probably remain till all
that was likewife abolifhed, with only flight
traces left behind to fhew that /uimus, &c.”

How mortifying itis to go home and never
fee this Paftum! Prince Ventimiglia went
there with Mr. Cox; he profeffes his inten=
tion foon to vifit England, concerning the

Vor. IL. i man-

50 OBSERVATIONS IN A

manners and cuftoms of which he is very in-
quifitive, and not ill-verfed in the language}
but books drop oddly into people’s hands:
This gentleman commended Ambrofe Phi-
iips’s Paftorals, and I remember the Floren-
tines feemed ftrangely imprefled with the merit
of the other Philips as a poet. Bonducci has
tranflated his Cyder, and calls him emulous
of Milton, in good time! but it is difficult
to diftinguifh jeft from earneft in a foreign
language.

I will not, if I can help it, lofe ight of
our Sicilian however, till 1 have made him
tell me fomething about Dionyfius’s Ear,
about the eruptions of Aitna, and the Ca/-
tagno a cento cavalli, which, he protefis, is
not magnified by Brydone.

_ It is wonderfully mortifying to think how
little information after all can be obtained of
any thing new or any thing ftrange, though
fo far from one’s own country. What I
picked up moft curious and diverting from
our converfation, was his expreffion of fur-
prife, when at our houfe one day he read a
letter from his mother, telling him that fuch
a lady, naming her, remained ftill unmarried,
and even unbetrothed, though now paft ten

12 . years

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. St

years old. “ She will,” faid I, “ perhaps
break through old cuftoms, and chufe for
herfelf, as fhe is an orphan, and has no one
whom fhe need confult.’-——“ Impoflible,
Madam!” was the reply.—‘ But tell me,
Prince, for information’s fake, if fuch a lady,
this girl for example, fhould venture to
aflert the rights of humanity, and make a
choice fomewhat unufual, what would come
of it 2?” —** Why nothing inthe world would
come of it,” anfwered he; “ the lafs would be
immediately at liberty again, for no man fo
circumftanced could be permitted to leave the
country a/ive you know, nor would her folly
benefit his family at all, as her eftate would
be immediately adjudged to the next heir.
No perfon of inferior rank in our country
would therefore, unlefs abfolutely mad, fet
his life to hazard for the fake of a frolic, the
event of which is fo well known before-
hand ;—lefs ftill, becaufe, if /ove be in the
cafe, all perfonal attachment may be fully
gratified, only let her but be once legally
married to a man every way her equal.”
Could one help recolleCting Fielding’s fong in
the Virgin unmafked? who fays,

E 2 For

G2 OBSERVATIONS IN A

For now I’ve found out that as Michaelmas day
Is {till the forerunner of Lammas;

So wedding another is juft the right way
To gét at my dear Mr. Thomas.

I will mention another talk I had with a
Sicilian lady. We met at the houfe of the
Swedifh minifter, Monfieur André, uncle to
the lamented officer who perifhed in our fo-
vereign’s fervice in America; and while the
reft of the company were entertaining them-
felves with cards and mufic, I began laughing
in myfelf at hearing the gentleman and lady
who fat next me, called by others Don Ra-
phael and Donna Camilla, becaufe thofe two
names bring Gil Blas into one’s head. Their
agreeable and interefting converfation how-
ever foon gave my mind a more ferious turn
when difcourfing on the liberal premiums now
offered by the King of Naples to thofe who
are willing to rebuild and repeople Meflina,
Donna Camilla politely introduced me to a
very fick but pleafing-looking lady, who fhe
faid was going to return thither: at which
fhe, farting, cried, “ Oh God forbid, my
dear friend !”” in an accent that made me think
fhe had already fuffered fomething from the

concufs

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 53

concuffions that overwhelmed that city in the
year 1783. Her inviting manner, her {oft
and interefting eyes, whofe languid glances
feemed to fhew beauty funk in forrow, and
{fpirit oppreffed by calamity, engaged my ut-
moft attention, while Don Raphael prefled her
to indulge the foreigner’s curiofity with fome
particulars of the diftreffes fhe had fhared.
Her own feelings were all fhe could relate fhe
faid—and thofe confufedly. ‘* You fee that
girl there,” pointing toa child about feven or
eight years old, who ftood liftening to the harp-
fichord: “ fhe efcaped! I cannot, for my foul,
guefs how, for we were not together at the
time.” —“ Where were yor, madam, at the mo-
mentof the fatal accident?” -- Who? me2” and
her eyes lighted up with recolleted terror: “ I
was in the nurfery with my maid, employed in
taking flains out of fome Bruffels lace upon
a brazier ; two babies, neither of them four
years old, playing in the room. The eldeft
boy, dear lad! had juft left us, and was in
his father’s country-houfe. The day grew
fo dark all on a fudden, and the brazier—Oh,
Lord Jefus! I felt the brazier flide from me,

BE 3 and —

Sa OBSERVATIONS IN A

and faw it run down the long room on its
three legs. ‘The maid fcreamed, and | fhut
my eyes and knelt ata chair. We thought
all over; but my hufband came, and fnatch-
ing me up, cried, ruz, ruz.—I know not
how nor where, but all amongft falling
houfes it was, and people fhrieked fo, and
there was uch a noife! My poor fon! he
was fifteen years old; he tried to hold me
faft in the crowd. I remember kifling him:
Dear lad, dear lad! Ifaid. I could fpeak juf
then: but the throng at the gate! Oh that
gate! Thoufands at once! ay, thoufands!
thoufands at once: and my poor old con-
feflor too! I knew him: I threw my arms
about his aged neck. Padre mio! faid I—
Padre mio! Down he dropt, a great ftone
ftruck his fhoulder ; I faw it coming, and my
boy pulled me: he faved my life, dear, dear
lad! But the crafh of the gate, the fcreams
of the people, the heat—Oh fuch a heat! I
felt no more on’t though ;I faw no more on’t;
I waked in bed, this girl by me, and her father
giving me cordials. We were on fhipboard,
they told me, coming to Naples to my bro-
ther’s houfe here; and do you think Til
ever go back there again? No, no; that’s a

curft

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 55

curft place ; Iloft myfoninit. Never, never
will I fee it more! All my friends try to per-
fuade me, but the fight of it would do my
bufinefs. If my poor boy were alive indeed!
but de! ah, poor dear lad! he loved his mo-
ther ; he held me faft—No, no, I’ll never fee
that place again: God has curled it zow; I
am fure he has.”

A narrative fo melancholy, fo tender, and
fo true, could not fail of its effe@. I ran for
refuge to the harpfichord, where a lady was
finging divinely. I could not liften though :
her grateful fweetnefs who told the difmal
ftory, followed me thither: fhe had feen my
ill-fupprefled tears, and followed to embrace
me. The tale fhe had told faddened my heart,
and the news we heard returning to the Cro-
celle did not contribute to lighten its weight,
while an amiable young Englifhman, who
had long lain ill there, was now breathing
his laft, far from his friends, his country, or
their cuftoms ; all eafily difpenfed with, per-
haps derided, during the buftle of a journey,
and in the madnefs of fuperfluous health ; but
fure to be fighed after, when life’s laft twi-
light fhuts in precipitately clofer and clofer

E 4 round

56 OBSERVATIONS IN A

round a man, and leaves him only the nearer
objects to repofe and dwell on.

Such was Captain *s fituation ! he had
none but a foreign fervant with him. We
thought it might footh him to hear “ Can I
do any thing for you, Sir? in an Englifh
voice; fo I fent my maid: he had no com-
mands he faid ; he could not eat the jelly fhe

had made him ; he wifhed fome clergyman
could be found that he might fpeak to: fuch
a one was vainly enquired for, till it was dif-
covered that ill-health had driven Mr. Mentze
to Naples, who kindly adminiftered the laft
confolation a Chriftian can receive ; and heard
the next day, when confined himfelf to bed,
of his countryman’s being properly thruft
by the banker into the Buco Proteflante ; {fo
they contemptuoufly call a dirty garden one
drives by in this town, where not lefs than a
hundred people, imall and great, from our
ifland, annually refort, leaving fifty or fixty
thoufand pounds behind them at a moderate
computation; though if their bodies are ob-
liged to take ferpeiual apartments here, no
better place has been hitherto provided for
them than this kitchen ground; on which

grow

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 57

grow cabbages, cauliflowers, &c. fold to their
country folks for double price I trow, the re-
maining part of the feafon.
Well! well! if the Neapolitans do bury
thriftians like dogs, they make fome fingular
compenfations we will confefs, by nurfing dogs
like Chriftians. A very veracious man in-
formed me yefter morning, that his poor
wife was half broken-hearted at hearing fuch
a Countefs’s dog was run over; “ for,” faid
he, “ having fuckled the pretty creature her-
felf, fhe loved it like one of her children.”
{ bid him repeat the circumftance, that no
miftake might be made: he did fo; but fee-
ing me look fhocked, or afhamed, or fome-
thing he did not like—* Why, madam,” faid
the fellow, “ it is a common thing enough
for ordinary men’s wives to fuckle the lap.
dogs of ladies of quality :” adding, that they
were paid for their milk, and he faw no harm
in gratifying one’s /uperiors. As I was dif-
pofed to fee nothing dwt harm in difputing
with fuch a competitor, our conference finifh-
ed foon; but the fa& is certain.

Indeed few things can be foolither than to
debate the propriety of cuftoms one is not
bound

58 OBSERVATIONS IN A

bound to obferve or comply with. If you -
diflike them, the remedy is eafy; turn yours
and your horfes heads the other way.

zoth January 1786.

Here are the moft excellent, the moft in-
comparable fifh I ever eat; red mullets, large
as our maycril, and of fingularly high fla-
vour; befides the calamaro, or ink-fifh, a
dainty worthy of imperial luxury ; almond
and even apple trees in bloffom, to delight
thofe who can be paid for coarfe manners and
confined notions by the beauties of a brilliant
climate. Here are all the hedges in blow as
you drive towards Pozzuoli, and a {now of
white May-flowers cluftering round Virgil’s
tomb. So ftrong was the fun’s heat this morn-
ing, even before eleven o'clock, that I carried
an umbrella to defend me from his rays, as we
fauntered about the walks, which are fpacious
and elegant, laid out much inthe ftyle of
St. James’s Park, but with the fea on one fide
of you, the broad ftreet, called Chiaja, on the

other,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY.

other. What trees are planted there however,
either do not grow up fo as to afford thade,
or elfe they cutthem, and trim them about
to make them in pretty thapes forfooth, as we
did in England half a century ago,

Be this as it will, the vaunted view from the
caftle of St. Elmo, though much more deeply
interefting, isin confequence of this defect lels
naturally pleating than the profpeé from Lo-
mellino’s villa near Genoa, or Lord Clifford’s
park, called King’s Welton, in Somerfetthire ;
thofe two places being, in point of mere fitua-
tion, poffefled of beauties hitherto unrivalled
by any thing I have feen, Nor does the fteady
regularity of this Mediterranean fea make me
inclined to prefer it to our more capricious or
rather active channel, Sea views have at beft
too little variety, and when the flux and reflux
of the tide are taken away from one, there re-
mains only rough and fmooth: whereas the
hope which its ebb and flow keep conftantly
renovating, ferves to animate, and a little |
change the courfe of one’s ideas, juft as its
fwelling and finking is of ufe, to purify in

fome degree, and Keep the whole from ftag-
nation.

I made

66 OBSERVATIONS IN A

I made inquiry after the old ftory of Ni-
cola Pefce, told by Kircher, and fweetly
brought back to all our memories by Gold-
fmith, who, as Dr. Johnfon faid of him,
touched nothing that he did not likewife
adorn ; but I could gain no addition to what
we have already heard. ‘That there was fuch
aman is certain, who, though become nearly
amphibious by living conftantly in the water,
only coming fometimes on fhore for fleep and
refrefhment, fuffered avarice to be his ruin,
leaping voluntarily into the Gulph of Charybdis
to fetch out a gold cup thrown in thither to
tempt him—what could a gold cup have done
one would wonder for Nicola Pefce ?—yet
knowing the dangers of the place, he braved
them all it feems for this bright reward ; and
was fuppofed to be devoured by one of the
polypus fith, who, flicking clofe to the rocks,
extend their arms for prey. When I ex-
preffed my indignation that he fhould fo pe-
rifh; “* He forgot perhaps,” faid one prefent,
* to recommend himfelf to Santo Gennaro.”

The caftle on this hill, called the Caftel St.
Elmo, would be much my comfort did I fix
at Naples ; for here are eight thoufand foldiers

conftantly

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 6x

conftantly kept, to fecure the city from fud-
den infurrection; his majefty moft wifely
trufting their command only to Spanifh or
German officers, or fome few gentlemen from
the northern ftates of Italy, that no perfonah
tendernefs for any in the town below may in-
tervene, if occafion for fudden feverity fhould
arife. We went to-day and faw their garri-
fon, comfortably and even elegantly kept; and
I was wicked enough to rejoice that the fol+
diers were never, but with the very utmoft
difficulty, permitted to go among the townf-
men for a moment.

To-morrow we mount the Volcano, whofe
prefent peaceful difpofition has tempted us to
infpeét it more nearly, Though it appears
little lefs than prefumption thus to profane
with eyes of examination the favourite alem-
bic of nature, while the great work of projec=
tion is carrying on; guarded as all its fecret
caverns are too with every contradiction; fnow
and flame! folid bodies heated into liquefac-
tion, and rolling gently down one of its fides ;
while fluids congeal and harden into ice on
the other; nothing can exceed the curiofity
of its appearance, now the lava is lefs rapid,

and

62 OBSERVATIONS IN A

and ftiffens as it flows; ftiffens too in ridges
wery furprifingly, and gains an odd afpeét, not
unlike the pafteboard waves reprefenting fea
at a theatre, but black, becaufe this year’s
eruption has been mingled with coal. The
connoifleurs here know the different degrees,
dates, and fhades of lavatoa perfection that ama-
zes one; and Sir William Hamilton’s courage,
learning, and perfect fkill in thefe matters, is
more people’s theme here than the Volcano
itfelf. Bartolome, the Cyclop of Vefuvius as
he is called, fiudies its effects and operations
too with much attention and philofophical ex-
aCtnefs, relating the adventures he has had
with our minifter on the mountain to every
Englifhman that goes up, with great fuccefs.
‘The way one climbs is by tying a broad fath
with long ends round this Bartolomeo, letting
him walk before one, and holding it faft. As
far as the Hermitage there is no great difh-
culty, and to that place fome chufe to ride an
afs, but I thought walking fafer; and there
you are fure of welcome and _ refrefhment
from the poor good old man, who {ets up a
little crofs wherever the-fire has ftopt near his
cell; thews you the place with a fort of polite

ae folemnity

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 63

folemnity that imprefles, {fpreads his fcanty
provifions before you kindly, and tells the paft
and prefent ftate of the eruption accurately,
inviting you to partake of

His rufhy couch, his frugal fare,
His bleffing and repofe. GoLpDsmirTH.

This Hermit is a Frenchman. ai danfé
dans mon lit tans de fois*, faid he: the ex-
preffion was not fublime when {peaking of an
earthquake, to be fure; I looked among his
books, however, and found Bruyere. ‘* Would
not the Duc de Rochefoucault have done bet=
ter?” faid I. “ Did I never fee you before, Ma-
dam ?” faid he ; “ yes, fure I have, and dreffed
you too, when I was a hair-drefler in London,
and lived with Monf. Martinant, and I dreff=
ed pretty Mifs Wynne too in the fame ftreet.
Vit'elle encore? Vit elle encore | ? Ab I am old
now,’ continued he; “ I remember when black
pins firft came up.” This was charming, and in
fuch an unexpected way, I could hardly pre-
vail upon myfelf ever to leave the fpot ; but
Mrs. Greatheed having been quite to the cra-

* J have danced in my bed fo often this year.
‘+ Is the yet alive? Is the yet alive?

ter’s

64 OBSERVATIONS IN A

ter’s edge with her only fon, a baby of four
years old; fhame rather than inclination urged
me forward; I afked the little boy what
he had feen; I faw the chimney, replied he,
and it was on fire, but I liked the elephant
better.

That the fituation of the crater changed in
this laft eruption is of little confequence ; it
will change and change again I fuppofe. The
wonder is, that nobody gets killed by ven-
turing fo near, while red-hot ftones are flying
about them fo. The Bifhop of Derry did
very near get his arm broke ; and the Italians
are always recounting the exploits of thefe
rafh Britons who look into the crater, and
carry their wives and children up to the top ;
while we are, with equal juftice, amazed at
the courageous Neapolitans, who build little
fnug villages and dwell with as much confi-
dence at the foot of Vefuvius, as our people
do in Paddington or Hornfey. When I en-
quired of an inhabitant of thefe houfes how
' fhe managed, and whether fhe was not fright-
ed when the Volcano raged, left it fhould
carry away her pretty little habitation: “ Let
it go,” faid fhe, “ we don’t mind now if it goes

to<

9

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 65
to-morrow, fo as we can make it anfwer by
raifing our vines; oranges, &c. againft it for
three years, our fortune is made before the
fourth arrives ; and then if the red river comes
we can always run away, /cappar via, our-
felves, and hang the property. We only defire
three years ufe of the mountain as a hot wall
or forcing-houfe, and then we are above the
world, thanks be to God and St. Januarius,”
who always comes in for a large fhare of their
veneration ; and this morning having heard
that the Neapolitans ftill prefent each other
with a cake upon New-year’s day, I began to
hug my favourite hypothefis clofer, recollect-
ing the old ceremony of the wheaten cake
feafoned with falt, and called Yanwalis in the
Heathen days. All this however muft ftill
end in mere conjecture ; for though the wea-
ther here favours one’s idea of Janus, who
loofened the furrow and liquefied the froft, to
which the melting our martyr’s blood might,
without much ftraining of the matter, be
made to allude; yet it muft be recolle&ed
after all, that the miracle is not performed in
this month but that of May, and that St. Ja-
nuarius did certainly exift and give his life as

Vor. Il, & teftimony

66 OBSERVATIONS IN A

teftimony to the truth of our religion, in the
third century. Can one wonder, however,
if corruptions aid miftakes fhould have crept
in fince? And would it not have been equal

_to a miracle had no tares fprung up in the

field of religion, when our Saviour himfelf in-
forms us that there is an enemy ever watch-
ing his opportunity to plant them ?

Thefe dear people too at Rome and Naples
do live fo in the very hulk of fhip-wrecked or
rather foundered Paganifm, have their habita-
tion fo at the very bottom of the cafk, can it fail
to retain the fcent when the lees are fcarce yet
dried up, clean or evaporated? That an odd
jumble of paft and prefent days, paft and pre
fent ideas of dignity, events, and even manner
of portioning out their time, ftill confufe their
heads, may be obferved in every converfation
with them ; arid when a few weeks ago we
revifited, in company of fome newly-arrived
Englifh friends, the old baths of Baiz, Lo-
crine lake, &c. Tobias, who rowed us over;
bid us obferve the Appian way under the wa-
ter, where indeed it appears quite clearly, even
to the tracks of wheels on its old pavement
made of very large ftones ; and feeing me per-

: haps

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 67

haps particularly attentive, ‘Yes, Madam,” faid
he, “I do afflure you, that Dox Horace and
Dou Virgil, of whom we hear fuch a deal,
ufed to come from Rome to their country-feats
here in a day, over this very road, which is
now overflowed as you fee it, by repeated
earthquakes, but which was then fo good and
fo unbroken, that if they rofe early in the
morning they could eafily gallop hither againft
the dve Maria.”

It was very obfervable in our fecond vifit
paid to the Stuffe San Germano, that they had
increafed prodigioufly in heat fince mount
Vefuvius had ceafed throwing out fire, though
at leaft fourteen miles from it, and a vaft por-
tion of the fea between them ; it vexed me to
have no thermometer again, but by what one’s
immediate feelings could inform us, . there
were many degrees of difference. I could not
now bear my hand on any part of them for a
moment. ‘The fame lucklefs dog was again
produced, and again reftored to life, like the
lady in Dryden’s Fables, who is condemned
to be hunted, killed, recovered, and fet on foot
again for the amufement of her tormentors;
a ftory borrowed from the Italian.

F 2 Solfaterra

68 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Solfaterra burned my fingers as I plucked
an incruftation off, which allured me by the
beauty of its colours, and roared with more
violence than when I was there before. This
horrible volcano is by no means extinguifhed

yet, but feems pregnant with wonders, prin-

cipally combuftible, and likely to break with
one at every ftep, all the earth round it being
hollow as a drum, and I fhould think of no
great thicknefs neither; fo plainly does one
hear the fighings underneath, which fome of
the country people imagine to be tortured
{pirits howling with agony.

It is fuppofed that Lake Agnano, where
the dog is flung in, if the dewy grafs do not
fuffice to recover him, with its humidity and
frefhnefs, as it often does; is but another
crater of another volcano, long ago felf-
deftroyed by fcorpion-like fuicide; and it is
like enough it may be fo. ‘There are not
wanting however thofe that think, or fay at
leaft, how a fubterraneous or fubaqueous -
city remains even now under that lake, but
lies too deep for infpection.

Sia come fia*, as the Italians exprefs them-
felves, thefe environs are beyond all power

* Be it as it'may.

of

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 69

‘of comprehenfion, much more beyond all
effort of words to defcribe; and as Sannaza-
rius fays of Venice, fo I am fure it may be faid
of this place, “ That man built Rome, but God
created Naples :” for furely, furely he has ho-
noured no other {pot with fuch an accumula-
tion of his wonders: nor can any thing more
completely bring the defcription of the devoted
cities mentioned in Genefis before one’s eyes,
than thefe concealed fires, which there I trutft
burft up unexpectedly, and, attended by fuch
lightning as only hot countries can exhibit,
devoured all at once, nor {pared the too in-
credulous inquirer, who turned her head.
back with contempt of expected judgments,
but entangling her feet in the purfuing
ftream of lava, fixed her faft, a monument
of bituminous falt.

Though furrounded by fuch terrifying ob-
jeats, the Neapolitans are not, I think, dif-
pofed to cowardly, though eafily perfuaded
to devotional fuperftitions; they are not
afraid of fpeétres or fupernatural apparitions,
but fleep contentedly and foundly in {mall
rooms, made for the ancient dead, and now
actually in the occupation of old Roman
bodies, the catacombs belonging to whom

eS. are

70 OBSERVATIONS IN A

are ftill very impreflive to the fancy; and I
have known many an Englifh gentleman,
who would not endure to have his courage
impeached by /iving wight, whofe imagina-
tion would notwithftanding have difturbed
his flumbers not a little, had he been obliged
to pafs one night where thefe pcor women
fleep fecurely, wifhing only for that money
which travellers are not unwilling to beftow ;
and perhaps a walk among thefe hollow caves
of death, thefe fad repofitories of what was
once animated by valour and illuminated by
{cience, ftrike one much more than all the
urns and lachrymatories of Portici.

How judicious is Mr. Addifon’s remark,
“ That Sie Viater ! which has a ftriking effect
among the Roman tombs placed by the
road fide, lofes all its power over the mind
when placed in the body of a church;” J
think he might have faid the fame, had he
lived to fee funerea] urns ufed as decorations
of hackney-coach pannels, and Cafut Bovis
over the doors in New Taviftock-ftreet.

It is worth recollecting however, that the
Didator Sylla is fuppofed to be the firft man
of confequence who ordered his body to be
burned at Rome, as till then, burial was ap-

; parently

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3

parently the fafhion: his death, occafioned
by the morbus pedicularis, made his inter-
ment difficult, and what neceflity fuggefted to
be done for him, grew up into a cuftom,
and the fycophants of power, ever hafty to
follow their fuperiors, now fhewed their zeal
even in fof obit imitation. But while I am
writing, more modern and lefs tyrannic
claimants for refpect agreeably difturb one’s
meditations on the cruelty and oppreffion
ufed by thefe wicked poffeffors of immortal
though ill-gotten fame.

The Queen of Naples is delivered, and
we are all to make metry: the Ca/ello
d’ Uovo, juft under our windows, is to be
illuminated: and from the Carthufian con-
vent on the hill, to my poor folitary old
acquaintance the hermit and _hair-drefler,
who inhabits a cleft in mount Vefuvius, all
refolve to be happy, and to rejoice in the
felicity of a prince that loves them.
Shouting, and candles, and torches, and
coloured lamps, and Polinchinello above all
the reft, did their beft to drive forward the
general joy, and make known the birth of
the royal baby for many miles round the
capital; and there was a fplendid opera the

F 4 next

92 OBSERVATIONS IN A

next night, in this fineft of all fine theatres,
though that of Milan pleafes me better; as I
prefer the elegant curtains which feftoon it
over the boxes there, to our heavy gilt ornaz
ments here at Naples; and their boafted
looking-glaffes, never cleaned, have no effect
as I perceive towards helping forward the
enchantment. A féffa di ballo, or mafque-
rade, given here however, was exceedingly
gay, and the drefles furprifingly rich: our
‘party, a very large one, all Italians, retired
at one in the morning to quite the fineft fup-
per of its fize I ever faw. Fith of various
forts, incomparable in their kinds, compofed
eight difhes of the firft courfe; we had thirty-
eight fet on the table in that courfe, forty-
nine in the fecond, with wines and deffert truly
magnificent, for all which Mr. Piozzi pro-
tefted to me that we paid only three fhillings
and fix-pence a head Englifh moncy; but for
the truth of that he muft anfwer: we fate
down twenty-two perfons to fupper, and I
obferved there were numbers of thefe parties
made in different taverns, or apartments
adjoining to. the theatre, whither after re-
frefhment we returned, and danced till day-
light.

. The

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 73

The theatre is a vaft building, ‘even
when not inhabited or fet off by lights and
company: all of ftone too, like that of
Milan ; but particularly defended from fire by
St. Anthony, who has an altar and chapel
erected to his honour, and fhowily decorated
at the door ; and on Sunday night, January the
twenty-fecond, there were fireworks exhibited
in honour of himfelf and his pig, which was
placed on the top, and illuminated with no
{mall ingenuity: the fire catching hold of
his tail firlt—con rifpetto—as faid our Cice-
rone. But i R2 Lear dle fue tre Figlie are
advertifed, and I am fick to-night and can-
not go.

Oh what a time have I chofe out, &c.
To wear a kerchief—would I were not fick!

My lofs however is fomewhat compenfated ;
for though I could not fee our own Shakefpear’s
play ated at Naples, I went fome days after to
one of the charming theatres this town is enter-
tained by every evening, and faw a play
which ftruck me exceedingly: the plot was
fimply this—An Englifhman appears, drefled
precifely as a Quaker, his hat on his head,

his

74 OBSERVATIONS IN A

his hands in his pockets, and with a very
penfive air fays he will take that piftol, pro-
ducing one, and fhoot himfelf; ‘“ for,” fays
he, “ the politics go wrong at home now,
and I hate the minifterial party, fo England
does not pleafe me; I tried France, but the
people there laughed fo about nothing, and
fung fo much out of tune, I could not bear
France; fo I went over to Holland; thofe
Dutch dogs are fo covetous and hard-hearted,
they think of nothing but their money; L
could not endure a place where one heard no
found in the whole country but frogs croak-
ing and ducats chinking. MWaladetti! fo I
went to Spain, where I narrowly efcaped a
fun-ftroke for the fake of feeing thofe idle
beggarly dons, that if they do condefcend to
cobble a man’s fhoe, think they muft do it
with a fword by their fide. I came here to
Naples therefore, but ne’er a woman will
afford one a chafe, all are too eafily caught
to divert me, who like fomething in profpeé ;
and though it is fo fine a country, one can
get no fox-hunting, only running after a
wild pig. Yes, yes, I mu/? fhoot myfelf, the
world is fo very dull I am tired on’t.”—He

then

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 75

then coolly prepares matters for the operation,
when a young woman burfts into his apart-
ment, bewails her fate a moment, and then
faints away. Our countryman lays by his
piftol, brings the lady to life, and having
heard part of her ftorv, fets her in a place
of fafety. More confufion follows; a gen-
tleman enters ftorming with rage at a trea~
cherous friend he hints at, and a falfe mit
trefs ; the Englifhman gravely advifes him to
fhoot himfelf: ‘* No, no,” replies the warm
Italian, “ I will fhoot zhem though, if I can
catch them; but want of money hinders me
from profecuting the fearch.” That how-
ever is now inftantly fupplied by the generous
Briton, who enters into their affairs, detects
and punifhes the rogue who had betrayed
them all, fettles the marriage and reconcilia-
tion of his new friends, adds himfelf fome-
thing to the good girl’s fortune, and concludes
the piece with faying that he has altered
his intentions, and will think no more of
fhooting himfelf, while life may in all coun-
tries be rendered pleafant to him who will
employ it in the fervice of his fellow-crea-
tures; and finifhes with thefe words, that
Such are the Jentiments of an Englifbman.

Were

76 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Were this pretty {tory in the hands of one
of our elegant dramatic writers, how charm-
ing an entertainment would it make us! Mr.
Andrews fhall have it certainly, for though
very flattering in its intentions towards our
countrymen, and the ground-plot, as a fur-
veyor would callit, well imagined; the play
itfelf was fcarcely written I believe, and very
little efteemed by the Italians; who made
excufes for its groffnefs, and faid that their
theatre was at a very low ebb;. and fo I be-
lieve it is. Yet their genius is reftlefs, and
for ever fermenting; and although, like their
volcano, of which every individual has a
fpark, it naturally throws out of its mouth
more rubbifh than marble; like that too,
from fome occafional eruptions we may gather

. gems ftuck faft among fubftances of an inferior
~ nature, which want only difentangling, and

a new polifh, to make them valued, even
beyond thofe that reward the toil of an ex-
pecting miner.

The word gems reminds one of Capo dt
Monte, where the king’s cameos are taken care
of, and where the medallift may find perpetual
entertainment; for I do believe nothing can
exceed the riches of this collection ; though it

requires

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 77

requires good eyes, great experience, and long
ftudy, to examine their merits with accurate
fkill, and praife them with intelligent rapture:
of thefe three requifites I boaft none, fo cannot
enjoy this regale as much as many others ;
but I have a mortal averfion to thofe who
encumber the general progrefs of fcience by
reciprocating contempt upon its various
branches: the politician however, who weighs
the interefts of contending powers, or endea-
vours at the happinefs of regulating fome par-
ticular ftate ; who ftudies to prevent the en-
croachments of prerogative, or impede ad-
vances to anarchy; hears with faint appro-
bation, at beft, of the difcoveries made in the
moon by modern aftronomers—difcoveries of
a country where he can obtain no power, and
fettle no fyftem of government—difcoveries
too, which can only be procured by peeping
through glaffes which few can purchafe, at a
place which no man can defire to approach.
While the mufical compofer equally laments
the fate of the foffilift, who literally buries his
talent in the ground, and equally dead to all
the charms of tafte, the tranfports of true
expreffion, and the delights of harmony,
tifes with the fun only to fhun his beams,

and
12

78 OBSERVATIONS IN A

and feek in the dripping caverns of the
earth the effects of his diminifhed influence.
The medallift has had much of this feorn to
contend with ; yet he that makes it his ftudy
to regifter great events, is perhaps next to him.
who has contributed to their birth ; and this
palace difplays a degree of riches ev ce genre,
difficult to conceive.

I was, however, better entertained by
admiring the incomparable Schidonis, which
are to be found only here: he was a
{cholar, or rather an imitator, of Correg-
gio; and what he has done feems more
the refult of genius animated by obfervation,
than of profound thought or minute nicety $
he painted fuch ragged folks as he found upon
the Chiaja ; yet his piCtures differ no lefs from
the Dutch fchool, than do thofe which flow
from the majeftic pencil of the demi-divine
Caracci and their followers, and for the fame
reafon; their minds reflected dignity and grace,
his eyes looked upon forms finely propor-
tioned, though covered with tatters, or perhaps
fearcely covered at all; no fmugnefs, no
plumpnefs, no vulgar character, ever crofled
the fancy of Schidone; for a Lazaronz at
Naples, like a failor at Portfmouth, is no mean

character,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 79

character, though he is a coarfe one; it is in
the low Parifian, and the true-bred London
blackeuard, we muft look for innate bafe-
nefs, and near approaches to brutality; nor
are the Hollanders wanting in originals I truft,
when one has feen fo many copies of the hu-
man form from their hands, divefted of foul
as I may fay, and, like Prior’s Emma when
fhe refolves to ramble with her outlawed lover,

And mingle with the people’s wretched lee—

Oh line extreme of human infamy !—

Left by her look or colour be expreft

The mark of aught high-born, or ever better
dreft.

Here is a beautiful performance too of the
Venetian {chool—a refurrection of Lazarus, by
Leandro Baffano, efteemed the beft performance
of that family, and full of merit—the merit of
charaéter { mean; while Mary’s eyes are wholly
employed, and her mind apparently engroffed
by the Saviour’s benignity, and almighty
power; Martha thinks merely on the prefent
exertion of them, and only watches the deli-
verance of her beloved brother from the tomb:
the reftored Lazarus too—an apparent corpfe,
re-awakened fuddenly to a thonfand fenfations
at once, wonder, gratitude, and affectionate

2 delight!

85 - OBSERVATIONS IN A

delight !—How can one coldly fit to hear the
connoifleurs admire the folds of the drapery ?
Lanfranc’s St. Michael too is a very noble
picture; and though his angel is infinitely lefs
angelic than that of Guido, his devil is a lefg
ordinary and vulgar devil than that of his
fellow-ftudent, which’ fomewhat too much re-
fembles the common peeping fatyr in a land-
fcape; whereas Lanfranc’s Lucifer feems em-
bued with more intelleCtual vices—rage, re-
venge, and ambition.

But I am called from my obfervations and
reflexions, to fee what the Neapolitans call
il trionfo di Policinello, a perfon for whom
they profefs peculiar value. Harlequin and
Brighella here fcarcely fhare the fondnefs of
an audience, while at Venice, Milan, &c.
much pleafantry is always caft into their cha~
racters.

The triumph was a pageant of prodigious
fize, fet on four broad wheels like our wag-
gons, but larger; it confifted of a pyramid of
men, twenty-eight in number, placed with
wonderful ingenuity all of one fize, fomething
like what one has feen exhibited at Sadler’s

Wells, the Royal Circus, &c. ; drefled in one
uniform,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 81

uniform, viz. the white habit and puce-
coloured maik of caro Policinello; difpofed
too with that {kill which tumblers alone can
either difplay or defcribe; a fingle figure, fill
in the fame drefs, crowning the whole, and
forming a point at the top, by ftanding fixed
on the fhoulders of his companions, and play-
ing merrily on the fiddle; while twelve oxen
of a beautiful white colour, and trapped with
many fhining ornaments, drew the whole
flowly over the city, amidft the acclamations
of innumerable fpectators, that followed and
applauded the performance with fhouts.

What I have learned from this fhow, and
many others of the fame kind, is of no greater
value than the derivation of bis zame who is fo
much the favourite of Naples: but from the
mafk he appears in, cut and coloured fo as
exactly to refemble a /fea, with hook nofe and
wrinkles, like the body of that animal ; his
employment too, being ever ready to hop,
and {kip, and jump about, with affecation
of uncommon elaflicity, giving his neighbours
a fly pinch from time to time: all thefe cir-
cumftances, added to the very intimate ac-
quaintance and conne@tion all the Neapolitans
have with this, the leaft offenfive of all the

Vou. UU, G innu-

82 . OBSERVATIONS IN A

innumerable infects that infeft them; and,
laft of all, Lis name, which, corrupt it how we
pleafe, was originally Pulicinello; leaves me
perfuaded that the appellation is merely Zétle
flea.

A drive to Caferta, the king’s great palace,
not yet quite finifhed, carries me away from
this important ftudy, and leaves me little time
to enjoy the praifes due to a difcovery of fo
much confequence.

The drive perhaps pleafed us better than the
palace, which is a prodigious mafs of building
indeed, and to my eye appears to cover more
fpace than proud Verfailles itfelf; court within
court, and quadrangle within quadrangle ; it
is an enormous bulk to be fure—not pile—for
it is not high in proportion to the furrounding
objects fomehow ; and being compofed all of
brick, prefents ideas rather of {quat folidity,
than of princely magnificence. Oftentation is
expected always to ftrike, as elegance is known
to charm, the beholder; and fpace feldom
fails in its immediate effe€t upon the mind;
but here the valley (I might fay ole) this
houfe is fet in, looks too little for it; and
offends one in the fame manner as the more

9 beautiful

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. $3

beautiful buildings do at Buxton, where from
every hill one expects to tumble down upon
the uew Crefcent below. The ftair-cate is
fuch, however, as I am perfuaded no other
palace can fhew; vaftly wider than any the
French king can boaft, and infinitely more
precious with regard to the marbles which
compofe its fides. The immenfity of it, how-
ever, though it enhances the value, does not
do much honour to the tafte of him who con-
trived it. No apartments can anfwer the ex~
pectations raifed by fuch an approach; and
in fa& the chapel alone is worthy an afcent fo
fit for a triumphal proceffion, inftead of a pair
of ftairs. That chapel is I confefs of exquifite
beauty and elegance; and there is a picture,
by Mengs, of the blefled Virgin Mary’s pre-
fentation when a girl, that is really paitrie des
races ; it {earcely can be admired or com-
mended enough, and one can fearcely pre-
vail on one’s felf ever to quit it. Her mar-
riage, a picture on the other fide, is not fo
happily imagined; but it feems as if the
painter thought that joke too good to part
with, that there never was a particularly ex-
cellent picture of a wedding ; and that Pouflin

G2 himlelf

$4 OBSERVATIONS IN A

himfelf failed, when having reprefented all the
fix other facraments fo admirably, that of mar-
riage has been found fault with by the con-
noifleurs of every fucceeding generation.

Well! ifthe palace at Caferta muft be deemed
more heavy than handfome, I fear the gardens
mutt likewife be avowed to be laid out in a
manner one would rather term favage than
natural: all artifice is banifhed however: the
king of Naples {corns petty tricks for the
amufement of petty minds;—he turns a
whole river down his cafcade,—a real one;
and if its formation is not of the firft rate for
afluming an appearance of nature, it has the
merit of being fincerely that which others
only pretend to be: while [ am told that
his archite€ls are now employed in connea-
ing the great ftones awkwardly difpofed in two
rows down each fide the torrent, with the
very rocks and mountains among which the
{pring rifes ; if they effet this, their cafcade
will, fo far as ever I have read or heard, be
fingle in its kind.

Van Vittelli’s aqueduct is a prodigioutily
beautiful, magnificent, and what is more, a
ufeful performance: having the fineft models

of antiquity, he is faid to have furpaffed them
all.

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 85

all. Why fuch fuperb and expenfive methods
fhould be ftill ufed to condu& water up and
down Italy, any more than other nations, or
why they are not equally neceffary in France
and England, nobody informs me. Madame
de Bocages enquired long ago, when fhe was
taken to fee the fountain Trevi at Rome, why
they had no water at Paris but the Seine? I
think the queftion fo natural, that one wifhes
to repeat it ; and one great reafon, little urged
by others, incites me to look with envy on the
delicious and almoft innumerable gufhes of
water that cool the air of Naples and of Rome,
and pour their pellucid tides through almoft
every {treet of thofe luxurious cities: if 7s this,
that I confider them as a prefervative againft
that dreadfulleft of all maladies, canine mad-
nels; a diftemper which, notwithftanding the
exceffive heat, has here fcarcely a name. Sure
it is the plenty of drink the dogs meet at
every turn, that muft be the fole caufe of a
bleffing fo defirable.
My ftay has been always much fhorter than
I withed it, in every great town of Italy ; but
here! where numberlefs wonders ftrike the
fenfe without fatiguing it, I do feel double
Gt pleafure ;

86 OBSERVATIONS IN A

| pleafure ; and among all the new ideas I have

acquired fince England leffened to my fight
upon the fea, thofe gained at Naples will be
the laft to quit me. The works of art may
be found great and lovely, but the drunken
Faun and the dying Gladiator will fade from
one’s remembrance, and leave the glow of
Solfaterra and the gloom of Pofilippo indeli-
bly imprefled. Vefuvius too! that terrified
me fo when firft we drove into this amazing
town, what future images can ever obliterate
the thrilling fenfations it at firft occafioned ?
Surely the fight of old friends after a tedious
abfence can alone fupply the vacancy that a
mind muft feel which quits fuch fublime, fuch
animated fcenery, and experiences a fudden
deprivation of delight, finding the bofom all
at once unfurnifhed of what has yielded it for
three fwiftly-flown months, perpetual change
of undecaying pleafures.

To-morrow I fhall take my laft look at the.
Bay, and driving forward, hope at night to
lodge at Terracina.

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 87

JOURNEY rrom NAPLES ro ROME.

Tue morning of the day we left our fair
Parthenope was paffed in recolle@ting her va-
rious charms: every one who leaves her car~
ries off the fame fenfations. I have afked
fevera} inhabitants of other Italian States what
they liked beft in Italy except home; it was
Naples always, dear delightful Naples! When
I fay this, I mean always to exclude thole
whofe particular purfuits lead them to cities
which contain the prize they prefs for. Eng-
lifh people when unprejudiced exprefs the
like preference. Attachments formed by love
or friendfhip, though they give charms to
every place, cannot be admitted as a reafon for
commending any one above the reft. A tra-
veller without candour it is vain to read; one
might as well hope to get a juft view of na-
ture by looking througk a coloured glafs, as
to gain a true account of foreign countries, by
turning over pages dictated by prejudice.

With the nobility of Naples! had no acquaint-
ance, and can of courfe fay nothing of their
manners. ‘Thofe of the middling people feem
to be behind-hand with their neighbours; it

G 4 is

$8 OBSERVATIONS IN A

is fo odd that they fhould never yet have ar-
rived at calling their money by other names
than thofe of the weights, an ounce and a
grain; the coins however are not ugly.

* The evening of the day we left this furpri-

fing city was {pent out of its king’s domini-
ons, at Terracina, which now affords one of
the beft inns in Italy; it is kept by a French-
man, whofe price, though high, is regulated,
whofe behaviour is agreeable, and whofe fup-
pers and beds are delightful. Near the {pot
where his houfe now ftands, there was in an-
cient Pagan days a temple, erected to the me-
mory of the beardlefs Jupiter called Anxurus,
of which Paufanias, and I believe Scaliger too,
take notice; though the medal of Panfa is
imago barbata, fed intonfa, they tell me; and

Statius extends himfelf in defcribing the in-

nocence of Jupiter and Juno’s converfation
and conne@ion in their early youth. Both
of them had ftatues of particular magnificence
venerated with very peculiar ceremonies,
erected for them in this town, however, wt An-
wur fuit gue nunc Terracine funt™. The
tenth Thebaid too fpeaks much de templo

* Which was once Anxur, and now is Terracina.

7, Sacra

«<

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 89

facro, ct Funoni puella, Fovis Axuro*; and
who knows after all whether thefe odd cir-
cumftances might not be the original reafon
of Anxur’s grammatical peculiarity, well
known to all from the line in old Propria que
paribus,

Et genus Anxur quod dat utrumque ?

This place was founded and colonifed by
JEmilius Mamercus and Lucius Plautus, Anno
Mundi 3725 I think; they took the town of
Priverna, and fent each three hundred citizens
to fettle this new city, where Jupiter Auxurus
was worfhipped, as Virgil among fo many
other writers bears teftimony :

Circeumque jugum, queis Jupiter Anxuris arvis
Prefidet +. 7th Ainerp.

fEmilius Mamercus was a very pious conful,
and when he ferved before with Genutius his
colleague, made himfelf famous for driving
the nail into Minerva’s temple to ftop the
progrefs of the plague; he was therefore likely

* The temple facred to the maiden Juno and un-
razored Jove.

+ And the fteep hills of Circe ftretch around,

Where fair Feronia boafts her ftately grove,

And Anxur glories in her guardian Jove. PITT.

enough

g0 OBSERVATIONS IN A

enough to encourage this fuperftitious wor~
thip of the beardlefs Jupiter.

Some books of geography, very old ones,
had given me reafon to make enquiry after a
poifonous fountain in the rocks near Terra-
cina. My enquiries were not vain. ©The
fountain ftill exifts, and whoever drinks it
dies ; though Martial fays,

Sive falutiferis candidus Anxur acquis *.

The place is now cruelly unwholefome how-
ever; fo much fo, that our French landlord
protefts he is obliged to leave it all the fummer
months, at leaft the very hot feafon, and re-~

‘ tire with his family to Molo di Gaeta. He

told us with rational delight enough of a vifit
the Pope had made to thofe places fome few
years ago; and that he had been heard to fay
to fome of his attendants how there was no
mal aria at all thereabouts in paft days: an ob-
fervation which had much amazed them. Ie
was equally their wonder how his Holinefs

went o’walking about with a book in hig

hand or pocket, repeating verfes by the fea-
fide. One of them had afked the name of the
book, but nobody could remember it. ‘“* Was
it Virgil ?” faid one of our company. “ Lb mon

%* White Anxur’s falutary waters roll.

Dieu,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. or
Dieu, Madame, vous Pavex divinée *,? replied
the man. But, O dear (thought I), how
would thefe poor people have ftared, if their
amiable fovereign, enlightened and elegant
as his mind is, had happened to talk more in
their prefence of what he had been reading on
the fea fhore, Virgil or Homer; had he
chanced to mention that Molo di Gaeta was in
ancient times the feat of the Leftrygones, and
inhabited by canibals, men who eat one an-
other! and furely it is fearcely lefs comical
than curious, to recollect how Ulyfles ex-~
prefles his fenfations on firft landing juft by
this now lovely and highly-cultivated {pot,
when he pathetically exclaims,

Upon what coaft,
On what new region is Ulyffes toft?
Pofleft by wild barbarians fierce in arms,
Or men whofe bofoms tender pity warms ?
Porz’s Opysszy.
Poor Cicero might indeed have afked the
queftion feven or eight centuries after, in days
falfely faid to be civilized to a flate of per-
fetion; when his moft inhuman murder near
thistown, completed the meafure of theircrimes;
who to their country’s fate added that of its
philofopher, its orator, its acknowledged father
* Why, Madam, you have hit on it fure enough.
and

92 OBSERVATIONS IN A

and preferver.—Cruel, ungrateful Rome! ever
crimfon with the blood of its own beft citi-
zens—theatre of civil difcord and profcrip-
tions, unheard of in any hiftory but her’s ;
who, next to Jerufalem in fins, has been
next in fufferings too; though twice fo
highly favoured by Heaven—from the dread=

ful moment when all her power was at once

crufhed by barbarifm, and even her language
rendered dead among mankind—to the pre-
fent hour, when even her fecond fplendours,
like the laft gleams of an aurora borealts, fade
gradually from the view, and fink almoft im-
perceptibly into decay. Nor can the exem-
plary virtues and admirable condu& of ¢bis,
and of her four laft princes, redeem her from
ruin long threatened to her paft tyrannical
offences ; any more than could the merits of
Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus Pius com-
penfate for the crimes of Tiberius, Caligula,
and Nero.—Let the death of Cicero, which in-
fpired this rhapfody, contribute to excufeit; and
let me turn my eyes to the bewitching fpot—

Where Circe dwelt, the daughter of the day.
That fuch enchantrefles fhould inhabit fuch

regions could have been fcarce a wonder in
Homer’s

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 93

Homer’s time I trow; the fame country ftill
retains the fame power of producing fingers,
to whom our Englifh may with propriety
enough cry out ;

Hail, foreign wonder !
Whom certes our rough fhades did never breed.
MILTon.

That fhe fhould be the offspring of Phoebus
too, in a place where the fun’s rays have fo
much power, was-a well-imagined fable one
may feel; and her inftructions to Ulyfles for
his fucceeding voyage, juft, apt, and proper:
enjoining him a prayer to Crateis the mother
of Scylla, to pacify her rapacious daughter’s
fury, is the leaft intelligible of all Circe’s ad-
vice, tome. But when I faw the nafty trick
they had at Naples, of fpreading out the ox-
hides to dry upon the fea fhore, as one drives
to Portici; the Sicilian herds, mentioned in
the Odyfley, and their crawling fkins, came
into my head in a moment.

We have left thefe {cenes of fabulous won-
der and real pleafure however; left the warm
veltiges of claffic ftory, and places which have
produced the nobleft efforts of the human
mind; places which have ferved as no ig-
noble themes for truly immortal fong; all

quitted

94 OBSERVATIONS IN A

guitted now! all left for recollection to mufe
on, and for fancy to combine: but thele eyes
I fear will never more furvey them. Well!
no matter—

When like the bafelefs fabric of a vifion,
The cloud-capt tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The folemn temples, the great globe itfelf,
Yea all which it inherit, fhall diffoive ;

And like fome unfubftantial pageant faded
Leave not a wreck behind.

Ree i etl o Bs

WE are come here juft in time to fee the
three laft days of the carnival, and very droll
it is to walk or drive, and fee the people run
about the ftrects, all in fome gay difguife or
other, and mafked, and patched, and painted to
make fport. The Corfo is now quite a f{cene
of diftraGiion ; the coachmen on the boxes
pretending to be drunk, and throwing fugare
plumbs at the women, which it grows hard to
find out in the crowd and confufion, as the
evening, which fhuts in early, is the feftive
hour: and there is fome little hazard in pa-
rading the ftreets, left an accident might hap-

pen;

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 95

pen ; though a temporary rail and ¢rottoir are
erected, to keep the carriages off. Our high
joke, however, feems to confift in the men
putting on girls clothes: a woman is fome-
what a rarity at Rome, and ftrangely fuper-
fluous as it fhould appear by the extraordinary
fubftitutes found for them on the ftage: it is
more than wonderful to fee great {trong fel.
lows dancing the women’s parts in thefe fa-
fhionable dramas, paftoral and heroic ballets
as they callthem. Sofrazo fingers did not fo
furprife me with their feminine appearance in
the Opera; but thefe clumfy figuranies ! all
ftout, coarfe-looking men, kicking about in
hooped petticoats, were to me irrefiftibly ri-
diculous: the gentlemen with me however,
both Italians and Englifh, were too much
difgufted to laugh, while la premiere danfeufe
acted the coquet beauty, or diftraéted mother,
with a black beard which no art could fubdue,
and deftroyed every illufion of the pantomime
at a glance. All this ftruck nobody but us
foreigners after all; tumultuous and often
tender applaufes from the pit convinced us of
their heart-felt approbation ! and in the par-
terre fat gentlemen much celebrated at Rome
for their tafte and refinement.

As

96 OBSERVATIONS IN A

As their exhibition did not pleafe our
party, notwithftanding its fingularity, we went
but once to the theatre, except when a Fefta
di Ballo was advertifed to begin at eleven
o'clock one night, but detained the com-
pany waiting on its ftairs for two hours
at leaft beyond the time:, for my own part
I was better amufed owifide the doors, than
in. Mafquerades can of themfelves give very
little pleafure except when they are new things.
What was moft my delight and wonder to ob-
ferve, was the fight of perhaps two hundred
people of different ranks, all in my mind
ftrangely ill-treated bya nobleman; whohaving
a private fupper in the room, prevented their
entrance who paid for admiffion ; all mortified,
all crowded together in an inconvenient place;
all fuffering much from heat, and more from
difappointment; yetall inperfe&t good humour
with each other, and with the gentleman who
detained in longing and ardent, but not impa-
tiently-exprefled expeCtation, fuch a number
of Romans: who, as I could not avoid remark-
ing, certainly deferve to rule over all the
world once more, if, as we often read in hif-
tory, command is to be beft learned from the

practice of obedience. .
The

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 47

The mafquerade was cattied on when we
had once begun it, with more tafte and ele-
gance here, than either at Naples .or Milan ;
fo it was at Florence, I remember; more dref-
fes of contrivance and fancy being preduced>

We hada very pretty device laft night, of a man
whopretended to carry ftatuesabout asif for fale:
the gentlemen and ladies who perfonated the
figures were incomparable from the choice of
attitudes, and fkill in colouring; but #7 car~
novale & morto, as the women of quality told
us laft night from their coaches, in which they
carried little tranfparent lanthorns of a round
form; red, blue, green, &c. to help forward
the fhine 5 and thefe they throw at each other
as they did fugar plums in the other towns,
while the millions of {mall thin bougie candles
held in every hand, and ftuck up at every bal-
cony, make the Strada del Popolo as light as
day, and produce a wonderfully pretty effec,
gay, natural, and pleafing.

_ The unftudied hilarity of Italians is very rejoi-
cing to the heart, from one’s confcioufnefs that it
is therefult of cheerfulnefsreally felt, not a mere
incentive to happinefs: hoped for. The death
of Carnovale, who was carried to his grave
with fo many candles fuddenly extinguifhed

Vor. I, Bigs at

?

gf OBSERVATIONS IN A”
at twelve*o’clock taf night; has reftored us'to 4
trariquil pofleflion of otirfelves, and to’an op
portunity of examining the beatities of nature
and art that furround ones:
- St. Peter’s church is sretietbebtyth the firft
obje& in this'city, fo crowded ‘with fingle fi-
gures; That this church*thould be built in the
form of a Latin crofs inflead of a Greek one
may be wrong for ought I-know; that co-
lumns would have done better than piers in=
fide, I do not think; but that’ whatever has
been done -by man might have been done
better, if that: is'all the critics-want, I readily
allow. This church is; after all their objec
tions, nearer to perfe& than any other build=
ing in the world ;.and when Michael Angelos
Jooking-at the Pantheon; faid, ‘¢ Is this the beft
-our vaunted anceftors could do? If fo, I will thew
tthe advancement of the art, in fufpending a
dome.of equal fize tothis-up in the air.” He
made a glorious boaft, and was perhaps the
only perfon ever exifling who could se
eo med his promife.

» The figures of angels, or rather cherubims,
-eight feet high, which fupport the vafes hold-
sing holy water; as they are: made after the
‘form of babies, do perfeftly and clofely re=
>prefent infants of eighteen or twenty months

old;

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. © -99

“eld; nor till one comes quite clofe to them
indeed, is it poffible to difcern that they are
coloflal. This is brought by fome as a proof
of the exact proportions kept, and of the
prodigious {pace occupied, by the area of this
immenfe edifice; and urged by others, as a
peculiarity of the bunian body to deceive fo
at a diftance, moft unjuftly: for one is fur-
prifed éxaatly in the fame manner by the
doves, which ornament the church in various
parts of it. They likewife appear of the
natural fize, and completely within one’s
reach upon entering the door, but foon as
approached, recede to a confiderable height,
and prove their magnitude nicely propor-
tioned to that of the angels and other deco=
rations.

The canopied altar, and .its appurte=
nances, are likewife all coloflal I think, when
-they tell me of four hundred and fifty thou=
fand pounds weight of bronze brought from
the Pantheon, and ufed to form the wreathed
pillars which fupport, and the torfes that
adorn it. . Yet airy lightnefs and exquilite
“elegance are the charatteriftics of the fabric,
‘not gloomy greatnefs, or heavy {olidity.
‘How -immenfe- then -muft ‘be the -fpace~it

wid ftands

Staete~
Sisirorcwerk
Semberg

160 OBSERVATIONS IN A

ftands on! four hundred and fixty-feven of
amy fteps carried me from the door to the
end. Warwick caftle would be contained in
its middle aif. Here are one hundred and
twenty filver lamps, each larger than I could
lift, conftantly burning round the altar; and
one never fees either them, or the light they
difpenfe, till forced upon the obfervaticn of
them, fo completely are they loft in the ge-
neral grandeur of the whole. In fhort, with
a profufion of wealth that aftonifhes, and of
fplendour that dazzles, as foon as you enter
on an examination of its fecondary parts,
every man’s jiz/? impreffion at entering St.
Peter’s church, muft be furprife at feeing it
fo clear of fuperfluous ornament. This is the
true character of innate excellence, the /17- -
plex munditiis, or freedom from decoration ; the
noble fimplicity to which no embellifhment
can add dignity, but feems a mere ap-
pendage. Getting on the top of this ftupen-

dous edifice, is, however the readieft way to

fill one’s mind with a deferving notion of its
extent, capacity, and beauty; mor is any
operation eafier, fo happily contrived is the
afcent. Contrivance here is an ill-chofen

_word too, fo luminous fo convenient is the

walk,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. tor

walk, fo fpacious the galleries befide, that all
idea of danger is removed, when you per-
ceive that even round the undefended cor-
nice, our king’s ftate coach might be moft
fafely driven.

The monuments, although incomparable,
{carcely obtain a fhare of your admiration
for the firft ten times of your furveying the
place; Guglielmo della Porta’s famous figure,
fupporting that dedicated to the memory of
Paul the Third, was found fo happy an imi-
tation of female beauty by fome madman
here however, that it is faid he was inflamed
with a Pigmalion-like paffion for it, of which
the Pontiff hearing, commanded the ftatue
to be draped. The fteps at almoft the end
of this church we have all heard were, por-
phyry, and fo they are; how many hundred
feet long I have now forgotten :—no matter ;
what I have not forgotten is, that I thought as
T looked at them—why fo they /hould be por-
phyry—and that was all. While the vafes
and cifterns of the fame beautiful fubftance at
Villa Borghefe attra&ted my wonder; and
Clement X.’s urn at St. John de Lateran,
appeared to me an urn fitter for the afhes of
an Egyptian monarch, Bufiris or Sefoftris,

H3 than

302 OBSERVATIONS IN A

than for a Chriftian prieft or fovereign, fince
univerfal dominion has been abolifhed. No-=
thing, however, ¢an look very grand in St,
Peter’s church; and though J faw the ge-
neral benediction given (I hope partook it)
upon Eafter day, my conftant impreflion was,
that the people were below the place; nd
pomp, no glare, no dove and glory on the»
chair of ftate, but what looked too little for
the area that contained them, Sublimity dif
dains to catch the vulgar eye, fhe élevates the
foul; nor can long-drawn proceflions, or
fplendid ceremonies, fuffice to content thofe
travellers who feek for images that never tars
nifh, and for truths that never can decay.
Pius Sextus, in his morning drefs, paying his
private devotions at the altar, without any
pageantry, and with very few attendants,
ftruck me more a thoufand and a thoufand
times, than when arrayed in gold, in colours,
and diamonds, he was carried to the front of
a balcony big enough to have contained the
conclave; and there, fhaded by two white
fans, which, though really enormous, looked
no larger dian that a girl carries in her pocket,
pronounced words which on account of thé

eer they came from were difficult to hear.
te All

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ag
.. All this is known; and felt by. the managers
of thefe theatrical exhibitions fo certainly, that
they judicioufly confine great part of them to
the Capella Seffini, which being large enough
to imprefs. the mind with its. folemnity, and
not fpacious. enough for the priefts, congre-
gation, and all, to be loft init, is well adapted
for thofe various functions that really make
Rome-a fcene- of -perpetual gala during the
holy weeks which an Engliih friend here
protefted to me he had never {pent with fo
little devotion in his life before... The mi/e=
rere has, however, a flrong power. over one’s
mind—the abfence of all inftrumental mufic,
the fteadinefs of fo many-human. voices, the
gloom of the place, the picture of Michael
Angelo’s jaft judgment ‘covering its walls,
united-with the mourning -drefs of the fpec~
tatorsis altogether calculated with great in=
getluity.to give a fudden ftroke to the imagi-+
nation, and kindle that temporary blaze of
devotion it™is wifely enough intended to. ex=
cite’; but eventhis has muchi’of its effe@& de=
ftroyed, from the admiffiort of too many
people : crowd arid buftle, and ftrugele for
pices leave’ no room for’ ao. ideas, to range

ca pote Ee 4 “ « themfelves,

104 OBSERVATIONS IN A

themfelves, and leaft of all, ferious ones: nor.
would the opening of our facred mufic in
Weftminfter Abbey, when nine hundred per-
formers join to celebrate Meffiah’s praifes,
make that impreffion which it does upon the
mind, were not the king, and court, and all
the audience, as ftill as death, when the firft
note is taken.

: ‘The ceremony of wafhing the pilgrims feet
is a-pleafing one: it is feen in high perfection
here at Rome ; ; where all that the pope per-
fonally performs is done with infinite grace,
and with an air of mingled majefty and fweet-
nefs, difficult to hit, but fingularly becoming —
in him, who is both prieft of God, and fove-
reign of his people.

But how, faid Cyrus, fhall I diake: men
think me more excellent than themfelves? By
being really fo, replies Xenophon, putting his
words into the mouth of Cambyfes. Pius
Sextus takes no deeper method I believe, yet
all acknowledge his fuperiour merit: No
prince can lefg affect ftate, nor no clergyman
ean lefs adopt hypocritical behaviour. The
Pope powders his hair like any other of the »
Cardinals, and is, it feems, the firft who has
ever done fo. When he takes the air it is in

a fa-

i

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ros

a fafhionable carriage, with a few, a very few
guards on horfeback, and is by no means de-
firous of making himfelf a fhew. Now and
then an old woman begs his blefling as he
paffes ; but I almoft remember the time when
our bifhops of Bangor and St. Afaph were
followed by the country people in North
Wales full as much or more, and with juft
the fame feelings. One man in particular
we ufed to talk of, who came from a diftant
part of our mountainous province, with much:
expence in proportion to his abilities, poor
fellow, and terrible fatigue; he was a tenant
of my father’s, who afked him how he ven-
tured to undertake fo troublefme a journey?
It was to get my good Lord’s blefling, replied
the farmer, J hope it will cure my rheumatifm:
Kiffing the flipper at Rome will probably, in
a hundred years more, be a thing to be thus
faintly recollected by a few very old people ;
and it is ftrange to me it fhould have lafted fo
long. No man better knows than the prefent
learned and pious fucceffor of St. Peter, that
St. Peter himfelf would permit no act of ado-
ration to his own perfon ; and that he feverely
reproved Cornelius for kneeling to him, char-
cing him to rife and ftand upon his feet, add-

ing

3106, OBSERVATIONS IN A

ing thefe, remarkable words, /eeing I alfo ain a
man *. Surely it will at laft be found out

_ among them that fuch a ceremony is inconfif-

tent with the Pope’s charafter as a Chrif-
tian prieft, however it may fuit flate matters
to continue it im the character of a fovereign,

The road he is now making on every fide his
capital to facilitate foreigners approach, the

money he has laid out on the conveniencies
of the Vatican, the defire he feels of reforming

a police much in want of reformation, joined

to. an immaculate character for private virtue

and an elegant tafte for the fine arts, muf&

make every one wifh for a long continuance
of his health and dignity; though the wits:
and jokers, when they fee his arms up, as they:
are often placed in galleries, &c. about the

palace, and confift of a zephyr blowing ona

flower, a pair of eagle’s wings, and a few flars,
have invented this Epigram, to fay that when.
the Emperor has got his eagle back, the King of

France his fleurs de lys, and the ftars are gone

to heaven, Brafchi will have nothing left him

but the wind:

Redde aquilam Czefari, Francorum lilia regi,
Sydera redde polo, cztera Brafche tibi.

® Surge, -et ego ipfe homo fum, ‘° © VULGATE.

Thefe

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 1607

Fhefe verfes were given me by an agreeable
Benedictine Friar, member of a convent be-
longing to St. Paul's fuor delle mura; he was |
a learned man, a native of Ragufa, had been

- particularly intimate with Wortley Montague,
whofe variety of acquirements had impreffed
him exceedingly.

He thewed. us the curiofities of his church,
the fineft in Rome next to St. Peter’s; and had
filver gates; but the plating is worn off and
only the brafs remains. There is an old Egyp.
tian candleftick above five feet high preferved
here, and many other fingularities adorn the
church, ‘The Pillars are 136 in number, all
marble, and each confifting of one unjoined
and undivided piece; 40 of thefe are fluted,
and two which did belong to a temple of Mars
are feven feet and a half each in diameter.
Here is likewife the place where Nero ran for
refuge to the houfe of his freed-man, and in
the cloifter a ftone, with this infcription on it,

Hoc fpecus accepit poft aurea tefta Neronem*, —
Here is an altar fupported by four pillars of
red porphyry, and here are the pictures of all
the popes; St. Peter firft, and our prefent Braf-

* This hiding-hole received Nero after his golden

houfe. se

17 chi

108 OBSERVATIONS IN 3,

chi laft. It has given much occafion for chat
that there fhould now be no room left to hang
a fucceffor’s portrait, and that he who now
occupies the chair is painted in powdered hair —
and a white head-drefs, fuch as he wears every
day, to the great affliction of his courtiers, who
recommended the ufual ftate diadem ; but “ No,
no,’ faid he, ‘ there have been red cap Popes
enough, mine fhall be only white, and whiteit zs.

This beautiful edifice was built by the
Emperor Theodofius, and there is an old
piature at the top, of our Saviour giving the
benediftion in the form that all the Greek
priefts give it now. Apropos, there have
been many fects of Oriental Chriftians dropt
into the Church of Rome within thefe late
years ; a very venerable old Armenian fays
Greek mafs regularly in St. Peter’s church
every day before one particular altar ; his long
black drefs and white beard attraCted much of
my notice; he faw it did, and now whenever
we meet in the ftreet by chance he kindly
ftands ftill to blefs me. But the Syriac or
Maronites have a church to themfelves juft
by the Bocca della Verita; and extremely cu-
rious we thought it to fee their ceremonies upon
Palm Sunday, when their aged patriarch, not
: lefs

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 109

lefs thanninety-three years old, and richly attir=
ed with an inconvenient weight of drapery, and
a mitre fhaped like that of Aaron in our Bibles
exactly, was fupported by two olive coloured
orientals, while he pronounced abenedidtion on
the tree that ftood near the altar, and wasat leaft
ten feet high. The attendant clergy, habited
after their own eaftern tafte, and very fuperbly,
had broad phylacteries bound on their foreheads
after the fafhion of the Jews, and carried long
ftrips of parchment up and down the church,
with the Jaw written on them in Syriac cha-
racters, while they formed themfelves into a
proceffion and led their truly reverend prin+
cipal back to his place. An exhibition fo
ftriking, with the view of many monuments
round the walls, facred to the memory of
fuch, and fuch a bifhop of Damafcus, gave fo
ftrong an impreffion of Afiatic manners to the
mind, that one felt glad to find Europe round
one at going out again. One of the treafure$
much renowned in it we have feen to-day,
the transfiguration painted by Rafaelle ; it was
the jf thing the Emperor did vifit when he
came to Rome, and fo a Francifean Friarwho
fhews it, told us. He fawa gentleman walk
into church it feems, and leaving his friends

at

110 OBSERVATIONS IN A

at dinner, went out to converfe with hints
ss Pull afide the curtain, Sir,” {aid the ftrangery
* for Lam it bafte to fee this maffer~picce of
your immortal Raphael.” 1 was as willing to be
in a-hurry as 4e, fays the Friar, and obferved
how forttinate it was for us that it could not
be moved, otherwife we had loft it long ago
for, Sir, faid I, they would have carried it a-
way from poor Monte Gitovia to foine finef
temple long ago; though, let me tell you; this
is an elegant Dori¢ building too; and one of

. Bramante’s beft works, much admired by the

Englith in particular. I hope, if it pleafe God
now that I fhould live but a very little longer;
I.may have the honour of fhewing it sh¢ Em-
peror. “Is he expected?” enquired the
gentleman. “ Every day, Sir,” replies the Friars
“ And well now,” cries the foreigner, “ what
fort of a mando you expect to fee? Why,
Sir, you feem.a traveller, did you ever fee him?”
guoth the Francifcan. ‘ Yes, fure, my good
friend, very often indeed, he is.as plain aman
as .myfelf, has good intentions, and an honeft
heart; and 1 shank you would like him if you
knew ed becaufe he puts nobody out of
their way.”

This

JOURNEY? THROUGH ITALY. ats
Phisdialogne, natural:and fimple, had taken
fuch sholdof our good reiigieux’s fancy, that
not a word «would ‘he fay about the pidture,
while’ his imagination was fo full of the prince,
and ‘of ‘his ‘own amazement at the falutation
of his companions, ‘when returning to the re-
fectory ;—"* Why, Gaetano,” cried heey “thou
haft been converfing with Cz/ar :’—I too
liked the tale, ‘becaufe'it was artlefs, and bes
caufe it was true. But the picture furpafles
all praifej the woman kneéling on the *fore-
ground, her back ‘to ‘the {pectators, feemsa
repetition of the figure in Raphael's ‘famous
picture of the Vatican on fire, that is hewn in
the chambers called ‘particularly by his name;
where the perfonifications of Juftice and Meek-
nefs, engraved by-Strange, feize one’s .atten-
tion very forcibly: -itvis obfervable, that ‘the
‘firft:is every body’s favourite an ‘the: painting,
the: laft-in the engraving.

Raphael's Bible, as one of the long gal~
Teries is comically called by the connoifleurs,
breaks one’s neck’to look at it. The ‘ftories,
beginning with Adam arid Eve, are’ painted in
‘final compartments; the colouring as vivid
now 2s if it were sues laft week; and: the
: pribiluts

x12 OBSERVATIONS IN A

arabe/ques {fo gay and pretty, they are véry
often. reprefented on fans; and we have fine
engravings in England of all, yet, though ex-
quilitely done, they give one fomehow a falfe
notion of the whole: fo did Piranefi’s prints
too, though invaluable, when confidered by
themfelves as proofs of the artift’s merit. His
judicious manner, however, of. keeping all
coarfe objects from interfering with the grand
ones, though it mightily increafes the dignity,
and adds to the fpirit of his performance, is
apt to lead him who wifhes for information,
into a ftyle of thinking that will at laft pro~
duce difappointment as to general appear
ances, which here at Rome is really difpro-
portionate to the aftonifhing productions of
art contained within its walls.

‘But I muft leave this glorious Vatican, with
the perpetual regret of having feen fearcely
any thing of its invaluable library, except the
prodigious fize and judicious ornaments of it:
neither book nor MS. could I prevail on the
librarian to fhew me, except fome love-letters
from Henry the Eighth of England to Anne
Boleyn, which he faid were moft likely to in-
tereft me: they were very grofs and in-
decent ones to be fure ; fo I felt offended, and

went

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 113

went away, in a very ill humour, to fee Caftle
St. Angelo; where the emperor Adrian in-
tended perpetually to repofe; but the urn
containing his afhes is now kept in a garden
belonging to one of the courts in the palace,
near the Apollo and other Greek ftatues of pe
culiar excellence, From his tomb too, fome
of the pillars of St. Paul’s were taken, and this
fplendid maufoleum converted into a fort of
citadel, where Sixtus Quintus depofited three
millions of gold, it is faid; and Alexander the
Sixth retired to fhield himfelf from Charles
the Eighth of F.ance, who entered Rome by
torch-light in 1494, and forced the Pope to
give him what the French hiftorians. call
Pinvefliture du royaume de Naples; after which
he took Capua, and made his conquering
entry into Naples the February following,
1495; Ferdinand, fon of Alphonfo, flying
before him. This Pope was the father of the
famous Czefar Borgia ; and it was on this oc-
cafion, I believe, that the French wits made
the well-known diftich on his notorious ava-
rice and rapacity :
Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Chriftum,
Vendere jure poteft, emerat ille prius*.

* Our Alexander fells keys, altars, heaven ;
“When law and right are fold, he’ll buy : that’s even,

Vot. II, I This

114 OBSERVATIONS IN A

This Caftle St. Angelo went once, I be=
lieve, under the name of the lian Bridge,
when the emperor Adrian firft fixed his mind
on making a monument for himfelf there.
The foldiers of Belifarius are faid to have de-
ftroyed numberlefs ftatues which then adorned
it, by their odd manner of defending the place
from the Gothic aflaulters. It is now a fort
of tower for the confinement of ftate pri-
foners ; and decorated with many well-paint-
ed, but ill-kept pictures of Polydore and Julio
Romano,

The fire-works exhibited here on Eafter-
day are the completeft things of their kind in
the world ; three thoufand rockets, ali fent up
into the air at once, make a wonderful burft
indeed, and ferve as a pretty imitation of Ve-
fuvins: the lighting up of the building too
on a fudden with fire-pots, had a new and
beautiful effet; we all liked the entertain-
ment vaftly.

I looked here for what fomé French recueit,
Menagiana if | remember rightly, had taught

-me to expect; this was fome brafs cannon be-

longing to Chriftina queen of Sweden, who
had caufed them to be caft, and added an
engraving

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 115
engraving on them: with thefe remarkable

words ; :
Habet fua fulmina Juno*.

No fuch thing, however, could be found or
heard of. Indeed a {earch after truth requires
fuch patience, fuch penetration, and fuch
learning, that it is no wonder fhe is fo feldom
got a glimpfe of; whoever is diligently de-
firous to find her, is fo perplexed by igno-
rance, fo retarded by caution, fo confounded
by different explications of the fame thing re-
curring at every turn, fo fickened with filly
credulity on the one hand, and fo offended
with pertnefs and pyrrhonifm on the other,
that it is fairly rendered impoflible for one to
keep clear of prejudices, while the fteady re-~
folution to do fo becomes itfelf a prejudice. —
But with regard to little follies, it is better to
laugh at than lament them.

We were fhewn one morning lately the
fpot where it is fuppofed St. Paul fuffered
decapitation ; and our Cicerone pointed out to
us three fountains, about the warmth of Bux-
ton, Matlock, or Briftol water, which were
faid to have burft from the ground at the
moment of his martyrization- A Duteh gen-

* Juno too has her thunder.
12 tleman

116 OBSERVATIONS IN A

tleman in company, and a fteady Calvinift,
loudly ridiculed the tradition, called it an idle
tale, and triumphantly exprefled his certaiz
conviction, that {uch an event could not pofibly
have ever taken place. To this affertion no
reply was made; and as we drove home all
together, the converfation having taken a
wide range and a different turn, he related in
the courfe of it a long Roufleau-like tale of a
lady he once knew, who having the ftrongeft
poffible attachment to one lover, married an-
other upon principles of filial obedience, ftill
retaining inviolate her paffion for the object
of her choice, who, adorned with every ex-
cellence and every grace, continued a cor-
re{pondence with her acrofs the Atlantic ocean;
having inftantly changed his hemifphere, not
to give the hufband difturbance ; who on his
part admired their letters, many of which were
written in 4is praife, who had fo cruelly in-
terrupted their felicity. Seeing fome marks
of difbelief in my countenance, he begun ob-=
ferving, in an altered tone of voice, that com-=
mon and vulgar minds might hold fuch events
to be out of poflibility, and fuch fentiments
to be out of nature, but it was only becaufe
they were above the comprehenfion and beyond

the
12

&

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 117

the reach of people educated in large and cor-
rupt capitals, Paris, Rome, or London, to think
true. Now was not fome fhare of good
breeding (beft learned in great capitals per-
haps) neceffary to prevent one from retorting
upon fuch an orator—that it was more likely
nature {hould have been permitted to, deviate
in favour of Paul the apoftle of Jefus Chrift,
than of a fat inhabitant of North Zealand, no
way diftinguifhed from the mafs of mankind?

But we have been called to pafs fome mo-
ments on the Cezlian hill; and fee the Chie/a
di San Gregorio, interefting above all others
to travellers who delight in the veftiges of
Pagan Rome: as, having been built upon a
Patrician’s houfe, it ftill to a great degree re-
tains the form of one; while to the fcholar who
is pleafed with anecdotes of ecclefiaftical hif-
tory, the days recur when the ftone chair
they fhew us, contented the meek and vene-
rable bifhop of Rome who fate in it, while
his gentle {pirit fought the welfare of every
Chriftian, and refufed to perfecute even the
benighted and unbelieving Jews; oppofing
only the arms of piety and prayer, to the few.
enemies his tranf{cendent excellence had raifed

13 him.

118 OBSERVATIONS IN A

him. His pifture here is confidered as a
mafter-piece of Annibale Caracci; and it is
ftrange to think that the trial-pieces, as they
are called, fhould be erroneoufly treated of in
the Carpenteriana: when fpeaking of the
contention between the two {fcholars, to decide
which the mafter fent for an old woman,
Monfieur de Carpentier tells us the difpute lay
between Domenichino and Albano—a grofs
miftake; as it was Guido, not Albano, wha
ventured to paint fomething in rivalry with
Domenichino, relative to St. Andrew and his
martyrdom; and thefe trial-pieces produced
from her the fame preference given by every
fpeCtator who has feen them fince: for when
Caracci (unwilling to offend either of his {cho-
lars, as both were men of the higheft rank
and talents) enquired of ber what /he thought
of Guido’s performance ?-—“ Indeed,” replied
the old woman, “ I have never yet looked at
it, fo fully has my mind been occupied by the
powers fhewn in that of Domenichino.”

The vecchia is here at Rome the common
phrafe when {peaking of your only female fer
vant, a perfon not unlike an Oxford or Cam-
bridge bed-maker in appearance ; and much

amazed

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 11g

amazed was I two days ago at the anfwer of
our vecchia, when curiofity prompted me to
afk her age: —“ O, Madam, I ama very aged
qoman, was the reply, “ and have two
grandchildren married ; Lam forty-iwo years
old, poveretta me!” I told an Italian gentle-
man who dined with us what Caterina had
faid, and begged him to afk the /aguais de
place, who waited on us at table, a fimilar
queftion. He appeared a large, well-looking,
fturdy fellow, about thirty-eight years old;
but faid he was fcarce twenty-two; that he
had been married fix years, and had five chil-
dren. How old was your wife when you
met ?—‘¢ Thirteen, Sir,” anfwered Carlo: fo
all is kent even at leaft; for if they end. life
fooner than in colder climates, they peeth it
earlier it is plain.

Yet fuch things feem flrange to ws ; fo do
a thoufand which occur in thefe warm coun-
tries in the commoneft life. Brick floors, for
example, with hangings of a dirty printed
cotton, affording no bad fhelter for {piders,
bugs, &c.; a table in the fame room, encruft-
ed with verd antique, very fine and worthy of
Wilton houfe; with fome exceeding good

14 copies

120 OBSERVATIONS IN A

copies of the fineft pictures here at Rome
form the furniture of our prefent lodging :
and now we have got the little cafement win-
dows clean to look at it, I pafs whole hours
admiring, even in the copy, our glorious de-
feent from the crofs, by Daniel de Volterra ;
which to fay truth lofes lefs than many a great
performance of the fame kind, becaufe its
merits confift in compofition and defign; and
as fentiment, not ftyle, is tranflatable, fo
grouping and putting figures finely together
can be eafier tranfmitted by a copy, than the
meaner excellencies of colouring and finifh-
ing. Homer and Cervantes may be enjoyed
by thofe who never learned their language, at
leaft to a great degree; while a true tafte of

Gray’s Odes or Martial’s Epigrams has been

hitherto found exceedingly difficult to com-
municate. It would, however, be cruel to
deny the merit of colouring to Daniel de Vol-
terra’s defcent from the crofs, only becaufe
being painted in frefco it has fuffered fo ter-
ribly by time and want of care, but it is now
kept covered, and they remove the curtain
when any body defires to contemplate its va-
rious beauties,

The

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 12

The church of Santa Maria Maggiore has
been too long unfpoxen of, rich as it is with
the firft gold torn from the unfortunate abo-
rigines of America ; a prefent from Ferdinand
and Ifabella of Spain to the Pope, in return
for that permiffion he had given them to
exert and eftablith their fanguinary {way over
thofe lucklefs nations. One pillar from the
temple of Peace is an ill-adapted ornament to
this edifice, built nearly in the form of an
ancient Jofilica; and with fo expenfive a
quantity of gilding, that it is faid two hun-
dred and fifty thoufand pounds were expend-
ed on one chapel only, which is at laft inferior
in fame and beauty to cappella Corfini; in
riches and magnificence to cappella Borghe/e,
where an amethyft frame of immenfe value
furrounds the names, in gold cypher, of our
bleffed Saviour and his Mother, the ground
of which is of tranfparent Jafper, and cannot
be matched for elegance or perfection, being
at leaft four feet high (the tablets I mean),
and three feet wide. But to this Borghefe
family, I am well perfuaded, it would bea
real fatigue to count the wealth which they
enjoy,

Villa

322 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Villa Pamphili is a lovely place, or might
be made fo ; but laying out pleafure grounds
is not the forte of Italian tafte. I never faw
one of them, except Lomellino of Genoa, who
had higher notions of a garden than what am
opera fcene affords; and that is merely a range
of trees in great pots with gilded handles, and
rows of tall cypreiles planted one between
every two pots, all ftraight over againft each
other in long lines; with an o€tangular marble
bafon to hold water in the middle, covered
for the moft part with a thick green feum.

At Villa Pamphili is a pi€ture of San€torius,
who made the weighing balance fpoken of by
Addifon in the Spe€tator; it was originally
contrived for the Pamphili Pope. And here is
an old ftatue of Clodius profaning the myfteries
of the Bona Dea, as we read in the Roman
hiftory. And here are camels workingin the —
park like horfes: we found them playing
about at their Icifure when we were at Pifa,
and at Milan they were fhewed for a fhow;
fo little does one. ftate of Italy conne&t with
another. Thefe three cities cannot poflibly
be much further from each other than Lon-
don, York, and Exeter; yet the manners differ

entirely,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 123

entirely, and what is done in one place is not
known at all in the other. It muft be re-
membered that they are all feparate ftates.

At the Farnefini palace our amufements were
of a nature very coritrary to this ; but every
place produces amufement when one is will-
ing to be pleafed. After looking over the
various and ineftimable productions of art
contained there, we came at laft to the cele-
_ brated marriage of Alexander’s Roxana;
where, fay fome of the books of defcription,
the world’s greateft hero is reprefented by
Europe’s greateft painter. Some French gen-
tlemen were in our company, and looking
fteadily at the picture for a while, one of them
exclaimed, ‘* 4 la jin voila ce qui eff vrayment
noble ; cet Alexandre la; il paroit effectivement
le roy de France méme*.”

The Spada palace boafts Guercino’s Dido,
fo difliked by the critics, who fay fhe looks:
{pitted ; but extremely efteemed by thofe that
underftand its merit in other refpeéts. There
is alfo the very ftatue kept at this palace, at
the feet of which Czfar fell when he was
aflailinated at the capitol: thofe who fhew it

* Here’s fomething at laft that’s truly great however !
why this Alexander looks fit to be king of France.

never

124 OBSERVATIONS IN A

never fail to relate his care to die gracefully ;
which was likewife the laft defire that
occupied Lucretia’s mind: Auguftus too,
juftly confidering his life as fcenical, defired
the plaudits of his friends at its conclufion:
and even Flavius Vefpafian, a plain man as
one fhould think during a pretty large por-
tion of his exiftence, wifhed at laft to die like
an emperor, That this ftatue of Pompey
fhould have been accidentally found with the
head lying in one man’s ground and the body
in another, is curious enough : a rage for ap-
propriation gets the better of all the love of
arts ; fo the contending parties (like the fifters
in David Simple, with their fine-worked car-
pet) fairly fevered the ftatue, and took home
each his half; the proprietor of this palace
meanwhile purchafed the two pieces, ftuck
them onte more together, and here they are,
—Pity but the fovereign had carried both off
for himfelf.—Pius Sextus however is not fo
difpofed: he has had a legacy left him within
thefe laft years, to the prejudice of fome no-
bleman’s heirs; who loudly lamented ¢heir
fate, and bis tyranny who could take advantage,
as they expreffed it, of their relation’s ca-

price,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 125
price. The Pope did not give it them back,
becaufe they behaved fo ill, he faid; but nei-
ther did he feize what was left him, by dint
of defpotic authority ; he went to law with
the family for it, which I thought a very
ftrange thing; aud lof his caufe, which I
thought a ftill ftranger. |

We have juft been to. fee his gardens; they
are poor things enough; and the device of
reprefenting Vulcan’s cave with the Cyclops,
in water-works, was more worthy of Ireland
than Rome! Monte Cavallo is however a
palace of prodigious dignity ; the pictures
beyond meafure excellent ; his collection of
china-ware valuable and. tafteful, and there
are two Mexican jars that can never be
equalled.

Villa Albani is the moft dazzling of any
place yet however; and the caryatid pillars
the fineft things in it, though replete with
wonders, and diftraéting with objects each
worthy a whole day’s attention. Here is an
antique lift of Euripides’s plays in marble, as
thofe tell me who can read the Greek infcrip-
tions; I lofe infinite pleafure every day, for
want of deeper learning. Pillars not only of

giall?

126 OBSERVATIONS IN A

giall’ antique, but of paglia*, which no houfe
but this poflefles, amaze and delight indoéti
doftique though; the Vatican itfelf cannot
fhew fuch: a red marble mafk here, three
feet and a half in diameter, is unrivalled;
they tell you it is worth its own weight in
louis d’ors: a canopus in bafalt too ; and ca-
meos by the thoufand.

Mengs fhould have painted a more elegant
Apollo for the centre of fuch a gallery; but
his mufes make amends; the Viaggiana fays
they are all portraits, but I could get nobody
to tell me whofe. The Abbé Winckelman,
who if I recollect aright loft his life by his
paffion for virtw, arranged this ftupendous
colletion, in conjuntion with the cardinal,
whofe tafte was by all his contemporaries
acknowledged the beft in Rome.

We were carried this morning to a cabinet
of natural hiftory belonging to another car-
dinal, but it did not anfwer the account given
of it by our conductors.

What has moft ftruck me here as a real
improvement upon focial and civil life, was
the {chool of Abate Sylvefter, who, upon the

* Paglia is a {traw-coloured marble, wonderfully beau-
tiful, and extremely rare ; found only in fome northern
tracts of Africa, I am told here.

13 plan

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 127

plan of Monfieur L’Epce at Paris, teaches the
deaf and dumb people to fpeak, read, write,
and caft accounts; he likewife teaches them
the principles of logic, and inftruéts them in
the facred myfteries of our holy religion. I
am not naturally credulous, nor apt to take
payment in words for meanings; much of
my dife has been fpent, and all my youth, in
the tuition o: babies; I was of. courfe lefs
likely to be deceived; and I can fafely fay,
that they did appear to have learned all he
taught them: that appearance too, if it were
no more, is fo difficult to obtain, the patience
required from the mafter is fo very great, and
the good he is doing to mankind fo extenfive,
that I did not like offenfively to deteét the dif-
ference between kuowing a fyllogifm, and af-
pearing to know it. With regard to morality,
the pupils have certainly gained many pre-
cognita. While the capital fcholars were fhew-
ing off ‘to another party, I addrefled a girl
who fat working in the window, and perceiv-
ed that fhe could explain the meaning of the
commandments competently well. Toprovethe
truth, I pretended to pick.a gentleman’s pocket
who ftood near me; feccato! faid the wench
diftin@ly ; fhe was about ten years old perhaps:
but a little boy of feven was defervedly the

maiter’s

128 OBSERVATIONS IN A

mafter’s favourite; he really poffeffed the moft
intelligent and interefting countenance I ever
faw,and when to explain the major, minor,and
confequence, he put the two firft together into
his hat with an air of triumph, we were en-
chanted with him. Some one to teize him
faid he had red hair; he inftantly led them to
a picture of our Saviour which hung in the
room, faid it was the fame colour of his, and
ought to be refpeced.

Surely it is little to the credit of us Eng-
lifh, that this worthy Abbé Sylvefter fhould
have a ftipend from government ; that Mon-
fieur L’Epée de Paris fhould be encouraged
in the fame good work; that Mr. Braidwood’s
Scotch pupils fhould juftly engage every one’s
notice—while we /lecp ! A friend in company
feeing me fret at this, afked me if I, or any
one elfe, had ever feen or heard of a perfon
really qualified for the common duties of fo-
ciety by any of thefe profeflors ;—‘ That a
deaf and dumb man fhould underftand how
to difcourfe about the hypoftatic union,”
added he, “I will not defire; but was there
ever known in Paris, Edinburgh, or Rome,
a deaf and dumb fhoemaker, carpenter, or tay-
lor? Or did ever’ any watchmaker, fith-
monger, or wheelwright, ever keep and will-

ingly

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. t29

ingly employ a deaf and dumb journeyman?”
—Nobody replied ; and we went on our way
to fee what was eafier decided upon and un~
derftood—the tomb of Raphael at the Pan-
theon.

Among the many tours that have been
written, a mufical tour, an aftronomical tour,
&¢. I wonder we have never had a fepulchral
tour, making the tombs of famous men its ob- 3
jet of attention. That Raphael, Caracci, with
many more people of eminence, fleep at the
Pantheon, is however but a fecondary conii-
deration ; few can think of the monuments in
this church, till they have often contemplated
its architeCture, which is fo finely propor-
tioned that on firft entering you think it
{maller than it really is: the pillars are enor-
mous, the fhafts all of one piece, the compo-
fition Egyptian granite; thefe are the fixteen
‘which fupport the portico built by Agrippa ;
whofe car, adorned with trophies and drawn
by brazen horfes, once decorated the pedi-
ment, where the holes formed by the cramps
which faftened it are ftill vifible. Genferic
changed the gate, and connoifleurs know not
where he placed that which Agrippa made:
the prefent gate is magnificent, but does not

Seana K fit

130 OBSERVATIONS IN A

fit the place ; much of the brafs plating was
removed by Urban the Eighth, and carried to
St. Peter’s: he was the Barberini pope ; and
of him the people faid—

Barbarini faciunt barbara, &c.

He was a poet however, and could make epi-
grams himfelf; there is a very fine edition of
his poems printed at Paris under the title of
Maffi Barberini Poemata ; and fuch was his
knowledge of Greek literature, that he was
called the Attic bee. The drunken faun afleep
at Palazzo Barberini, by fome accounted the
firft ftatue in Rome, we owe wholly to his
care in its prefervation.

But the Pantheon muft not be quitted
till we have mentionéd its pavement, where
the precious ftones are not difpofed, as in
many churches, without tafte or care, ap-
parently by chance; here all is inlaid, fo as
to enchant the eye with its elegance, while
it dazzles one with its riches: the black
porphyry, in {mall {quares, difpofed in
compartments, and infcribed as one may
call it in pavonazzino perhaps; the red,

bounded by ferpentine; the granites, in giall
antique,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 131

antique, have an undefcribable effe&; mo
Florence table was ever fo beautiful: nor can
we here regret the caryatid pillars faid by
Pliny to have graced this temple in his time;
while the four prodigious columns, two of
Egyptian granite, two of porphyry, full re-
main, and replace them fo very well. Mon-
tiofius, who fought for the pillars faid by
Pliny to have been placed by Diogenes, an
Athenian archite&, as fapporters of this
temple, relates however, that in the year
1580 he faw four of them buried in the
ground as high as their fhoulders: but it does
not feem a tale much attended to; though I
confefs my own defire of digging, as he points
out the place fo exactly, on the right hand
fide of the portico. The beft modern cary-
atids are in the old Louvre at Paris, done by
Goujon; but thofe of Villa Albani are: true
antiques, perfect in beauty, ineftimable in
value,

The church that now ftands where a temple
to Bacchus was built, /vori delle mura, engaged
our attention this morning. Nothing can be
frefher than the old decorations in honour of
this jocund deity ; the figures of men and

K 2 women

132 OBSERVATIONS IN A

women carrying grapes, oxen drawing bar-
rels, &c. all the progrefs of a gay and plen-
teous vintage; a facrifice at the end. I forget
to whom the church is now dedicated, but it zs
a church ; and from under it has been dug
up a farcophagus, all of one piece of red por-
phyry, which reprefents on its fides a Bac-
chanalian triumph; the coffin is nine feet
long, and the Pope intends removing it to the
Vatican, as a companion to that of Scipio
fEmilianus, found a few months ago; his name
engraven on it, and his bones infide. Before
the proper precautions could be taken how-
ever, they were flung away by miftaken zeal
and prejudice ; but an Englifhman, fay they,
who loves an unbeliever, got pofleflion of a
tooth: meantime the afhes of the emperor
Adrian, who, as Eufebius tells us, fet up the
figure of a {wine on the gates of Bethlehem,
built a temple in honour of Venus, on Mount
Calvary; another to Jupiter, upon the hill
whence our Saviour afcended into heaven in
fight of his difciples;—4vzs afhes are kept in
a gilt pine-apple, brought from Caftle St. _
Angelo, and preferved among other rarities
in the Pope’s mufeum. So poor Scipio’s re-
mains needed not to have been treated worle

than

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 133

than his, as we know not how good a Chrif-
tian he might have made, had he lived but
150 years later: we are fure that he was a
wife and a warlike man; that he fulfilled the
{criptures unwittingly by burning Carthage; .
and that he protected Polybius, whom he
would fcarcely fuffer out of his fight.

After looking often at the pictures of St.
Sebaftian, I have now feen his church founded
by Conftantine: he lies here in white marble,
done by Bernini; and here are more mar-
vellous columns.—I am tired of looking out
words to exprefs their various merits.

The catacombs attract me more ftrongly ;
here, and here alone, can one obtain a juft
idea of the melancholy lives, and difmal
deaths, endured by thofe who firft dared at
Rome to profefs a religion inoffenfive and
beneficial to all mankind. San Filippo Neri
has his body fomewhat diftinguifhed from the
reft of thefe old pious Chriftians, among
whom he lived to a furprifing age, making a
eave his refidence. Relics are now dug up
every day from thefe retreats, and venerated
as having once belonged to martyrs murdered
for their early attachment to a belief now

Kom happily

134 OBSERVATIONS IN A

happily difplayed over one quarter of the
world, and making daily progrefs in another
not difcovered when thofe heroic mortals died
to atteft its truth. There is however great
danger of deception in digging out the relics,
thefe catacombs having been in Trajan’s time
made a burial-place for flaves; and fuch it
continued to be during the reign of thofe
Roman emperors who defpifed rather than
perfecuted the new religion in its infancy.
The confcioufnefs of this fact fhould cure the
paffion many here fhew for relics, the authen-
ticity of which can never be afcertained.
Thofe fhewn to the people in St. Peter’s
church one evening in the hoty week, all
came from here it feems ; and loudly do our
Proteftant travellers exclaim at their idolatry
who kneel during the expofure ; though for
my life I cannot fee how the cuftom is idola-
trous. He who at the moment a dead martyr’s
robe is {hewn him, begs grace of God to fol-
low that great example, is certainly doing no
harm, or in any wife contradicting the rules
of our Anglican church, whofe colleéts for
every faint’s day exprefs a like fupplication
for power to imitate that faint’s good example;

if

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 135

if once they worfhip the relics indeed, it
were better they were burned; and to fay
true, they fhould not be expofed without a
fermon explaining their ufe, left vulgar minds
might be unhappily mifled to miftake the real
end of their expofure, and profanely fubftitute
the creature for the Creator. Meanwhile no
one has a right to ridicule the love of what
_ once belonged to a favourite character, who
has ever felt attachment to a dead friend’s
{nuff-box, or defire of poflefling Scipio Ami-
lianus’s tooth.
~ But the beft effort to excite temporary de~
votion, and commemorate facred feafons, was
the illuminated crofs upon Good Friday night,
depending from the high dome of St. Peter’s
church; where its effect upon the architecture
is ftrangely powerful, fo large are the mafles
both of light and fhade; whilft the fublime
images raifed in one’s mind by its noble fim-
plicity and folitary light, hover before the
fancy, and lead recollection round through a
thoufand gloomy and myfterious paflages,
with no unfteady pace however, while fhe fol~
lows the rays which beam from the Re-
deemer’s crofs. Being obliged indeed to go
x K 4 with

136 OBSERVATIONS IN A

with company to thefe folemnities, takes off
from their effect, and turns imagination into
another channel, difagreeably enough, but it
muft be fo; where there is a thing to be feen
every one will go to fee it, and that which was
intended to produce fenfations of gladnefs,
gratitude, or wonder, ends zz being a /how.
The confcioufnefs of this fact only kept me
from withing to fee the Duomo di Milano, or
the cathedral of Canterbury illuminated juft
fo, with lamps placed in rows upon a plain
wooden crofs; which furely would have, up-
an thofe old Gothic ftru@ures, an unequalled
effect as to the forming of light and fhadow.

But let us wifh for any thing now rather

‘than a fine fight. I am tired with the very
word a fight; while the Jefuits church here
at Rome, with the figure of St. Ignatius all
covered with precious ftones, with bronze
angels by Bernini, and every decoration that
money can purchafe and induftry colle@, ra-
ther dazzles than delights one, I think.

The Italians feem to find out, I know not
why, that it is a good thing the Jefuits are gone;
though they fteadily endeavour to retain thofe
principles of defpotif{m which it was their
. peculiar

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 137

peculiar province to infpire and confirm, and
whilft all men mutt fee that the work of edu-
cation goes on worfe in other hands. Indeed
nothing can be wilder than committing youth
to the tuition of monks and nuns, unlefs, like
them, they were intended for the cloifter.
Young people are but too ready to find fault
with their teachers, and thefe are given into
the hands of thofe teachers who have a fault
_ ready found. Every chriftian, every moral
inftruction driven into their tender minds,
weakens with the experience that he or fhe
who inculcated it was a reclufe; and that they
who are to live in the world forfooth, muft
have more enlarged notions: whereas, to a
Jefuit tutcr, no fuch objection could be made ;
they were themfelves men of the world, their
inftitution not only permitted but obliged them
to mingle with mankind, to ftudy charaGters,
to attend to the various tranfactions pafling
round them, and take an active part. It was
indeed this {pirit pufhed too far, which undid
and deftroyed their order, fo ufeful to the
church of Rome. Connedtions with various
nations they found beft obtained by commerce,
and the {weets of commerce once tafted, what
body of men has been yet able to relinquifh ?

20 . But

}

138 OBSERVATIONS IN A

But the principles of trade are formed in direc
oppofition to that fpirit of fubordination by
which alone their exiftence could continue; and
it is unjuft to charge any fingle event or perfon
with the diffolution of a body, incompatible
with that ftate of opennefs and freedom to
which Europe is haftening. Incorporated
focieties too carry, like individuals, the feeds
of their own deftrudtion in their bofoms ;

As rman perhaps the moment of his breath

Receives the lurking principle of death;

The young difeafe, which muft fubdue at length,

Grows with his growth, and ftrengthens with his
ftrength.

fivery warehoufe opened in every part of
Europe, every fettlement obtained abroad, fa-
cilitated their undoing, by loofening the band
which tied them clofe together. Extremes
can never keep their diftance from each other,
while human affairs trot but in a circle; and
furely no ftronger proof of that pofition can
be found, than the fight of Quakers in Pen-
fylvania, and Jefuits in Paraguay, who lived

. with their converted Indian neighbours, alike

in harmony, and peace, and love,

We

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 139

We have been led to refleGions of this fort
by a view of girls portioned here at Rome once
a year, fome for marriage and others for a
nunnery ; the laft fet were handfomeft and
feweft, and the people I converfe with fay that
every day makes almoft vifible diminution in
the number of monks and nuns. I know not,
however, whether Italy will go on much the
better for having fo few convents; fome
fhould furely be left, nay fome mu be left in
a country where it is not poflible for every
man to obtain a decent livelihood, by labour
as in England: no army, no navy, very little
commerce poflible to the inland ftates, and
very little need of it inany; little ftudy of the
law too, where the prince or baron’s lips pro-
nounce on the decifion of property; what
muft people do where fo few profeflions are
open? Can they all be phyficians, priefts, or
fhop-keepers, where little phyfic is taken, and
few goods bought? There are already more
clergy than can live, and I faw an abaie with
the petit collet at Lucca, playing in the orchef-
tra at the opera for eighteen pence pay. Let us
be all contented with the benefits received from
heaven, and let us learn better than to fet up
J/e/f, whether nation or individual, as a ftand-

ard

140 OBSERVATIONS IN A

ard to which all others muft be reduced ; while
imitation is at laft but meannefs, and each
may in his own {phere ferve God and love
his neighbours, while variety renders life more
pleafing. Quod fis effe velis *, is an admirable
maxim, and furely no felf-denial is neceflary to
its practice ; while God has kindly given to
Italians a bright fky, a penetrating intelle&, a
genius for the polite and liberal arts, and a foil
which produces literally, as well as figura-
tively, almoft {pontancous fruits. He has be-
ftowed on Englifhmen a mild and wholefome
climate, a fpirit of application and improve-
ment, a judicious manner of thinking to
increafe, and commerce to procure, thofe few
comforts their own ifland fails to produce.
The mind of an Italian is commonly like
his country, extenfive, warm, and beautiful
from the irregular diverfification of its ideas ;
an ardent charaéter, a glowing landfcape.
That ofan Englifhman is cultivated, rich, and
regularly difpofed ; a fteady charaéter, a de-
licious landfcape.

I muft not quit Rome however without a
word of Angelica Kauffman, who, though
‘neither Englifh nor Italian, has contrived to

* What you are already, that defire to be for ever.

charm

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 141

charm both nations, and fhew her fuperior
talents both here and there. Befide her paint-
ings, of which the world has been the judge,
her converfation attracts all people of tafte to
her houfe, which none can bear to leave with-
out difficulty and regret. Buta fight of the
Santa Croce palace, with its difgufting ‘fob,
and the man in armour fo vifibly horror-
ftriken, puts all painters but Salvator Rofa for
a while out of one’s head. This mafter’s works
are not frequent, though he painted with fa-
cility. I fuppofe he is difficult to imitate or
copy, fo what we have of him is original.
There are too many living objets here in
Job’s condition, not to render walking in the
- ftreets extremely difagreeable; and though we
are told there are feventeen markets in Rome,
I can find none, the forum boarium being kept
alike in all parts of the city for ought I fee;
butchers ftanding at their fhop doors, which
are not fhut nor the fhop cleaned even on
Sundays, while blood is fuffered to run along
the kennels in a manner very fhocking to
humanity. Mr. Greatheed made me remark
that the knife they ufe now, is the fame em-
ployed by the old Romans in cutting up the

facrificed

542 OBSERVATIONS IN A

facrificed viGtim ; and there are in faét ancient
figures in many bas-reliefs of this town, which
reprefent the inferior officers, or pop, with a
prieft’s albe reaching from their arms and
tucked up tight, with the facrificing knife faft-
ened to it, exactly as the modern butcher
wears his drefs. ‘The apron was called /imus,
and there was a purple welt fewed on it in
fuch a manner as to reprefent a ferpent:

Velati limo, et verbena tempora vindi* ;

which Servius explains at length, but gives no
reafon for the ferpentine form, by fome people
exalted, particularly Mr. Hogarth, as nearly
allied to the perfetion of all poffible grace.
This looks hypothetical, but when the map of
both hemifpheres difplayed before one, fhews
that the Sun’s path forms the fame line, called
by pre-eminence Ecliptic, we will pardon their
predilection in its favour.

But it is time to take leave of this Roma
ériumphans, as fhe is reprefented in one ftatue
with a weeping provinceat her foot, /o beautiful!
it reminded me of Queen Eleanor and fair
Rofamond. ‘The Viaggiana fent me to look
for many things I fhould not have found with-

* Girt with the limus, and as to their temples, they
were crowned with vervain.
hy eet out

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 143

out that inftrutive guide, particularly the fin-
gular infcription on Gaudentius the adtor’s
tomb, importing that Vefpafian rewarded him
with death, but that K7i/fus, for fo Chrift is
fpelt, will reward him with a finer theatre in
heaven, He was one of our early martyrs
it appears, and an altar to dim would furely
be now more judicioufly placed at a play-
houfe door than one to good St. Anthony,
under whofe protection the theatre at Naples
is built; with no great propriety it mutt
be confeffed, when that Saint, difgufted by
the levities of life, retired to finifh his exift-
ence, far from the haunts of man, among the
horrors of an unfrequented defert. So has it
chanced however, that by many feats of
Chriftians, the player and his profeflion have
been feverely reprobated; Calvinifts forbid
them their walls as deftructive to morality,
while Romanifts, confidering them as juftly
excommunicated, refufe them the common
rites of fepulture. Scripture affords no ground
for fuch feverity. Dr. Johnfon once told me
that St. Paul quoted in his epiftles a comedy
of Menander; and I got the librarian at Ve-
nice to fhew me the paflage marked as a quo-
tation in one of the old editions: it is then

a fair

144 OBSERVATIONS IN A

a fair inference enough that the apoftle could
never have prohibited to his followers the
fight of plays, when he cited them himfelf;
they were indeed more innocent than any
other fhow of the days he lived in, and if well
managed may be always made fubfervient to
the great caufes of religion and virtue. The
paflage cited was this:

Evil communication corrupts good manners.

And now with regard to the prefent ftate
of morals at Rome, one muft not judge from
ftaring ftories told one ; it is like Heliogaba-
lus’s method of computing the number of his
citizens from the weight of their cobwebs. It
is wonderful to me the people are no worfe,
where no methods are taken to keep them
from being bad.

As to the fociety, I {peak not from myfelf,
for I faw nothing of it; fome Englith liked
it, but more complained. Wanting amufe-
ment, however, can be no complaint, even
without fociety, ina city fo pregnant with
wonders, fo productive of refletions ; and if
the Roman nobles are haughty, who can won-
der; when one fees doors of agate, and chim-

ney-

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 145

ney- pieces of amethy‘t, one can {carcely be fur~
prifed at the poffeffers pride, fhould they in
contempt turn their backs upon a foreigner,
whom they are early taught to confider as the
Turks confider women,’ creatures formed for
their we only, or at beft amufement, and de-
voted to certain deftru€tion at the hour of
death. With fuch principles, the hatred and
{corn they naturally feel for a proteftant will

~eafily fwell into fupercilioufnefs, or burft out
into arrogance, the moment it is unreftrained
by the neceflity of forms among the rich, and
the defire of pillage in the poor.

But I fhall be glad zow to exchange lapis
lazuli for violets, and verd antique for green
fields. Here are more amethyf{ts about Rome
than lilacs; and the laburnum which at this
gay feafon adorns the environs of London, I
look for in vain about the Porta del Popolo.

“The proud purple tulip which decorates the
ground hereabouts, oppofed to the Britifh
harebell, is Jta/y and England again ; but the
harebell by cultivation becomes a Ayacinth, the
tulip remains where it began. We are now
at the 16th of April, yet I know not how or
why it is, although the oaks, young, fmall,

Vo. Il. iL and

146 OBSERVATIONS IN A

and ftraggling as they are, have the leaves come
out all broad and full already, though the fig is
burfting out every day and hour, and the mul-
berry tree, fo tardy in our climate, that I have
often been-unable to fee fcarcely a bud upon
them even in May, is here completely furnith-
ed. Apple trees are yet in bloflom round this
city, and the few elms that can be found, are
but juft unfolding. Common fhrubs continue
their wintry appearance, and in the general
look of fpring little is gained. The hedges
now of Kent and Surrey are filled with fra-
grance I am fure, and primrofes in the remoter
provinces torment the {portfmen with fpoiling
the drag on a foft {centing morning; while
limes, horfe-chefnuts, &c. contribute to pro-
duce an effect not fo inferior to that foftered

by Italian funfhine, as I expected to find it.
Why the firft breath of far-diftant fummer
fhould thus affect the oak and fig, yet leave
the elm and apple as with us, the botanifts
muft tell; few advances have been made in
vegetation fince we left Naples, that is certain ;
the hedges were as forward near Pozzuoli two
full months ago. And here are no China
oranges to be bought; no, nora cherry or
firawberry to be feen, while every man of
fafhion’s

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 149

-fafhion’s table in London is covered with
them ; and all the fhops of Covent-garden and
St. James’s-ftreet hang out their luxurious
temptations of fruit, to prove the proximity of
fummer, and the advantages of induftrious
cultivation. Our eating pleafed me more at
.evety town than this; where however a man
night live very well I believe for fixpencea-day,
and lodge for twenty pounds a-year; and who- _
ever has no attachment to religion, friends, or
country, no prejudices to plague his neigh-
bours with, and no diflike to take the world
as it goes, for fix or feven years of his life,
may {pend them profitably at Rome, if either
his bufinefs or his pleafure be made out of the
works of art ; as an income of two, or indeed
one hundred pounds fer annum, will purchafe
a man more refined delights of that kind here,
than as many thoufands in England: nor need
he want fociety at the firft houfes, palaces one
ought to call them, as Italians meafure no
man’s merit by the weight of his purfe; they
know how to reverence even poverty, and
foften all its forrows with an appearance of
refpe@t, when they find it unfortunately con-
nected with noble birth. His own country
folk’s neglect, as they pafs trrough, would in-

| one. deed

148 OBSERVATIONS IN A

deed be likely enough to difturb his felicity,
and leffen the kindnefs of his Roman friends,
who having no idea of a perfon’s being fhun-
ned for any other poffible reafon except the
want of a pedigree, would conclude that dis
muft be effentially deficient, and lament

their having laid out fo many careffes on an
impoftor.

The ait of this city is unwholefome to fo-
reigners, but if they pafs the firft year, the
remainder goes well enough; many Englifh
feem very healthy, who are eftablifhed here
without even the fmalleft intention of return-
ing home to Great Britain, for which place we
are fetting outto-morrow, 1gthApril 1786, and
quit a town that ftill retains fo many juft pre-
tences to be ftyled the firft among the cities of the
earth; to which almoftas many ftrangersare now
attracted by curiofity, as were dragged thither
by violence in the firft ftage of its dominion,
impelled by fuperftitious zeal in the fecond.
The rage for antiquities now feems to have
fpread its contagion of connoiffeurfhip over:
all thofe people whofe predeceflors tore down,
levelled, and deftoyed, or buried under ground
their ftatues, pi@ures, every work of art;

Poles,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 49

Poles, Ruffians, Swedes, and Germans innu-
merable, flock daily hither in this age, to ad-
mire with rapture the remains of thofe very
fabrics which their own barbarous anceftors
pulled down ten centuries ago; and give for
the head of a Livia, a Probus, or Gallienus,
what emperors and queens could not then ufe
with any efficacy, for the prefervation of their
own perfons, now grown facred by ruft, and
valuable from their difficulty to be decyphered.
The Englifh were wont to be the only travel-
lers of Europe, the only dupes too in this way;
but defire of diftin@ion is diffufed among
all the northern nations, and our Romans
here. have it more in their power, with
that prudence to affift them which it is faid
they do not want, if not to conquer their neigh-
bours once again, at leaft to ru them, by
dint of digging up their dead heroes, and call-
ing in the affiftance of their old Pagan deities,
now ufeful to them in a zew manner, and ever
propitious to this city, although

Enlighten’d Europe with difdain

Beholds the reverenc’d heathen train,

Nor names them more in this her clearer day,

Unlefs with fabled force to aid the poet’s lay.
R, Merry.

L 3

SSS

350 OBSERVATIONS IN A

From ROME to ANCONA,

In our road hither we paffed through what
remains of Veia, once fo efteemed and liked
by the Romans, that they had a good mind,
after they had driven Brennus back, to change
the feat of empire and remove it there; but a
belief in augury prevented it, and that event
was put off till Conftantine, feduced by beauties
of fituation, made the fatal change, and broke
the laft thread which had fo long bound tight
together the fafces of Roman fway. We did
not tafte the Vinum Veientanum mentioned
by Martial and Horace, but trotted on to Ci-
vita Caftellana, where Camillus rejected the
bafe offer of the fchoolmafter of Fefcennium ;
a good picture of his well-judged punifhment
is ftill preferved in the Capitol.

The firft night of our journey was fpent at
Otricoli, where I heard the cuckoo fing in a
fhriller fharper note than he does in England.
T had never liftened to him before fince I left
my own country, and his fong alone would

| | have

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 15t

have convinced me I was no longer in it.
Porta di Fuga at Spoleta gates, conzmemorating
poor Hannibal’s precipitate retreat after the
battle of Thrafymene, may perhaps detain us
a while upon this Flaminian way; it was not
Titus Flaminius though, whofe negotiations
ruined Hannibal for ever, that gave name to the
road, hut Caius of the fame family ; they had
been Flamens formerly, and were therefore
called Flaminius, when drawn up by accident
or merit into notice; the fame cuftom fiill
obtains with us: we have Dr. Priefley and Mr.
Parfous.

Narni Bridge coft us fome trouble in clam-
bering, and more in difputing whether it was
originally an aqueduct or a bridge—or both.
Itis a magnificent ftru@ture, irregularly built,
the arches of majeftic height, but all unequal.
There was water enough under it when I was
there to take off the impropriety apparent to
many of turning fo large an arch over fo {mall
aftream. Yet notwithftanding that the river
was much fwelled by long continuance of
the violent rains which lately fo overflowed the
city of Rome, affifted by the Tyber, that peo-
ple went about the ftreets in boats, notwith-

L 4. ftanding

152 OBSERVATIONS IN A

ftanding the fnows tumbled down from the
furrounding mountains, muft have much in-
creafed the quantity, and lowered the colour
of the river :—We found it even zow yellow
with brimftone, and well deferving the epithet
of fulphureous Nar.

The next day’s drive carried us forward to
Terni, where a fevere concuflion of the earth

uffered only three nights fince, kept all the
little town in terrible alarm ; the houfes were
deferted, the churches crowded, fupplications
and proceffions in every {treet, and people
finging all night to the Virgin under our win-
dow.

Well! the next morning we hired horfes
for our gentlemen ; a little cart, not inconve-
nient at all, for my maid and me; and
f{crambled over many rocks to view the far-
famed waterfall, through afweet country, pleaf-
ingly interfe@ed with hedges and planted
with vines; the ground finely undulated,
and rifing ‘by gradations of hill till the eye
lofes itfelf among the Jofty Appenines; fur-
ly as they feem, and one would think imper-
vious; but againft human art and human
ambition, the boundary of rocks and roaring
feas lift their proud heads in vain. Man renders

them
i2

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 153

them fubfervient to his imperial will, and
forces them to facilitate, not impede his do-
minion; while ocean’s felf fupports his fhips,
and the mountain yields marble to decorate
his palace.

This is however no moment and no place to
begin a panegyric upon the power of man,
and of his fkill to fubjugate the works of na-
ture, where the people are trembling at its
paft, and dreading its future effects.

The cafcade we came to fee is formed by
the fall of a whole river, which here abruptly
drops into the Nar, from a height fo prodigi-
ous,and by a courfe fo unbroken, that it is dif-
ficult to communicate, fo as to receive the idea:
for no eye can meafure the depth of the preci-
pice, fuch is the tofling up of foam from its
bottom ; and the terrible noife heard long be-
fore one arrives fo ftunned and confounded
all my wits at once, that many minutes
paffed before I obferved the horror in our con-
ductors, who coming with us, then firft per-
ceived how the late earthquake had twifted
the torrent out of its proper channel, and
thrown it down another neighbouring rock,
leaving the original bed black and deferted,
asa difmal proof of the concuflion’s force,

One

r54 OBSERVATIONS IN &

One of our Englith friends who had vifited
Schaffhaufen, made no difficulty to prefer
this wonderful cafcade to the fall of the Rhine
at that place ; and what with the fiffures made
in the ground by recent earthquakes, the fight
of propt-up cottages which fright the fancy
more than thofe already fallen, and the roar
ofdafhing waters driven from their deftined
currents by what the people here emphatically
term palpitations of the earth; one feels a
thoufand fenfations of fublimity unexcited by
lefs accidents, and foon obliterated by real
danger. (Cis

Why the inhabitants will have this tum-
bling river be Topino, I know not; but no
fuggeftions of mine could make them name it
Velino, as our travellers uniformly call it :
for, fay they, guello é il nome del Sorgente*; and
in fa& Virgil’s line,

Sulfurea Nar, albus acqua fontefque Velini,
fays no more.

_ The mountains after Terni grow fteep and
difficult } no one who withes to fee the Ap-
penines in perfeGtion muft mifs this road, yet
are they not comparable to the Alps at beft,
which being more lofty, more craggy, and

* That’s the name of the fpring.
almoit

ee ae

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 155

almoft univerfally terminating in poirits of
granite devoid of horizontal ftrata, give one
a more majeftic idea of their original and du-
ration, Spoleto is on the top of one of them,
and Porta della Fuga meets one at its gates.
Here as our coach broke {and who can won-
der?) we have time to talk over old ftories, and
look for fireams immortaliz’d in fong : for being
tied together only with ropes, we cannot hurry
through a country moft delightful of all others
to be detained in.

The little temple to the river god Clitumnus
afforded matter of difcuffion amongft our party,
whether this was, or was not the very one
mentioned by Pliny : Adjacet templum prifcum
et religiofum. Stat Clitumnus ipfe amiétus ore
natufque™.

Mr. Greatheed was angry with me for ad-
miring fpiral columns, as he faid pillars were
always meant to fupport fomething, and fpiral
lines betrayed weaknefs. Mr. Chappelow
quoted every claflic author that had ever men=
tioned the white cattle ; and I faid that fo far
as they were whiter than other beafts of the
fame kind, fo far were they worfe; for that

* ‘There was an old religious temple hard by, where

Clitumnus himfelf was venerated with fuitable drefs and
ornaments,

whitenefs

156 OBSERVATIONS IN A

whitenefs in the works of nature fhewed fee-
blenefs ftill more than fpirals in the works of
art perhaps. So chatting on—but on no Fla-
minian way, we arrived at Foligno; where
the people told us that it was the quality of

thofe waters to turn the clothing of many

animals white, and accordingly all the fowls

looked like thofe of Darking. had however

no tafte of their beauty, recolleGing that when

I kept poultry, fome accident poifoned me

avery beautiful black hen, the breed of Lord

Mansfield at Caen Wood: fhe recovered her

illnefs; but at the next moulting feafon, her

feathers came as white as the fwans. “ Let

us look,” fays Mr. Sh » “ if all the wo-

men here have got grey hair.

Tolentino and Macerata we will not {peak
about, while Lorettocourts defcription, and the
richeft treafures of Europe ftand in the moft
delicious diftric of it. The number of beg-
' gars offended me, becaufe I hold it next to im-
pofibility that they fhould want in acountry fo
luxuriantly abundan.; and their proftrations ©
as they kneel and kifs the ground before you,
are more calculated to produce difguft from
Britifh travellers, than compaffion. Nor can

I think

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 157

I think thefe vagabonds diftreffed in earneft at
this time above all others; when their fove-
reign provides them with empleyment on the
beautiful new road he is making, and infifts
on their being well paid, who are found
willing to work. But the town itfelf of Lo-
retto claims my attention; fo clear are its
ftreets, fo numerous and cheerful and induf-
trious are its inhabitants: one would think
they had refolved to rob paflengers of the trite
remark which the fight of dead wealth always
infpires, that the money might be better beflowed
upon the living poor. For here are very few
poor families, and fewer idlers than one ex-.
pects to fee ina place where not bufinefs but
devotion is the leading charatteriftic. So
quiet too and inoffénfive are the folks here, |
that {carcely any robberies or murders, or any
but very petty infringements of the law, are
ever committed among them. Yet people
grieve to fee that wealth collected, which once
diffufed would certainly make many happy ;
and thofe treafures lying dead, which well dif-
perfed might keep thoufands alive. This ob-
fervation, not always made perhaps by thofe
who feel it moft, or that would fooneft give

their

158 OBSERVATIONS IN A

their fhare of it away, if once poflefled, is now,
from being fo often repeated, become neither
bright nox new. Wewill not however be pe-
tulantly hafty to cenfure thofe who dirft began
the lamentation, remembering-that our blefled
Saviour’s earlieft difciples, and thofe moft im-
mediately about him too, could not forbear
grudging to fee precious ointment poured up-
on his feet, whom they themfelves confeffed to
be the Son of God. We fhould likewife recol-
Je& his mild but grave reproof of thofe men
who gave fo decided a preference to the poor
over his facred perfon, fo foonto be facrificed
for them, and his teftimony to the wo-
man’s earneft love and zeal exprefled by giv-
ing him the fineft thing fhe had. Such ac-
ceptance as fhe met with, I fuppofe prompted
the hopes of many who have been diftinguith-
ed by their rich prefents to Loretto; and let
not thofe at leaft mock or moleft them, who
have been doing nothing better with their
money. Upon examination of the jewels it
is curious to obferve that the intrinfic value
of the prefents is manifeftly eveater, the more
ancient they are; but tafte fucceeds to folidity
in every thing, and proofs of that pofition may

be

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 159

be foundevery ftep onetreads. The veftments,
all embroidered over with picked pearl, are
quite beyond my powers of eftimation.
The gold baby givenat the birth of Louis Qua-
torze, of fize and weight equal to the real in-
fant, has had its value often computed ;_ I for-
get the fum though. A rock of emeralds in
their native bed prefented by the Queen of
Portugal, though of Occidental growth, is
furely ineftimable ; and our fanguinary Ma-
ry’s heart of rubies is highly efteemed.. Iafk-
ed if Charles the Ninth of France had fent
any thing ; for I thought their prefents fhoeuld
have been placed together: far, far even from
the wooden image of 4er who was a model
of meeknefs, and carried in her fpotlefs bofom
the Prince of Peace. Many very exquifite
pieces of art too have found their way into
the Virgin’s cabinet; the pearl however is the
ftriking rarity, as it exhibits in the manner
of a blot on marble, the figure of our bleffed
Saviour fitting on a cloud clafped in his mo-
ther’s arms. Princefs Borghefe fent an ele-
gantly-fet diamond necklace no longer ago
than laft Chriftmas-day; it is valued at a
thoufand pounds fterling Englifh: but the

9 riches

160 OBSERVATIONS IN A

riches of that family appear to me inexhauft-
ible. Whoever fees it will fay, the might have
{pent the money better; but let them refle&
that one may fay that ef a// expence almoft;
and it is not from the’ ftate of Loretto thefe
treafures are taken at laft: they dring money
there ; and if any perfon has a right to com-
plain, it muft be the fubje&ts of diftant
princes, who yet would {carcely have divided
among ¢hem the fapphires, &c. they have fent
in prefents to Loretto.

It was curiousto fee the devotees drag them-
felves round the holy houfe upon their knees ;
but the Santa Scala at Rome had fhewn me
the fame operation performed with more dif-
ficulty ; and a written injunction at bottom,
lefs agreeable for Italians to comply with, than
any poffible proftration; viz. That no one
fhould {pit as he went up or down, except in
his pocket-handkerchief. The lamps which
burn night and day before the black image
here at Loretto are of folid gold, and there
is fuch a crowd of them I fcarcely could fee the
figure for my own part; and that one may
fee ftill lefs, the attendant canons throw a
veil over one’s face going in.

The

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 16

The confeffionals, where all may be heard
in their own language, is not peculiar to this
church; I met with it fomewhere elfe, but
have forgotten where, though I much efteem-
ed the eftablifhment. It is very entertaining
here too, to fee infcriptions in twelve different
tongues, giving an account of the miraculous
removal and arrival here of the Santa Cafa:
I was delighted with the Welch one; and our
conductor faid there came not unfrequently
pilgrims from the vale of Llwydd, who in
their turns told the wonders of their holy well.
In Latin then, and Greek, and Hebrew,
Syriac, Phoenician, Arabic, French, Spanith,
German, Welch, and Tufcan, may you read
a ftory, once believed of equal credit, and
more revered I fear, than even the facred
words of God fpeaking by the {criptures ;
but which is now certainly upon the wane.
I told a learned ecclefiaftic at Rome, that we
fhould return home by the way of Loretto :—
“ There is no need,” faid he, “ to caution a
native of your ifland againft credulity ; but
pray do not believe that we are ourfelves
fatisfied with the tale you will read there; no
man of learning but knows, that Adrian de-

Vor, II. M ftroyed

16% OBSERVATIONS [N A

itroyed every trace and veftige of Chriftianity
that he could find in the Eaft; and he was
acute, and diligent, and powerful. The em-
prefs Helena long after him, with piety that

‘equalled even his profanenefs, could never

hear of this holy houfe; how then fhould it
have waited till fo many long years after Jefus
Chrift? Truth is, Pope Boniface the VIIth,
who canonized St. Louis, who inftituted the

jubilee, who quarrelled with Philippe le Bel

about a new crufade, and who at laft fretted
himfelf to death, though he had conquered
all his enemies, becaufe he feared fome lofs
of power to the church ;—defired to give
mankind a new object of attention, and en-
couraged an old vifionary, in the year 1296,
0 propagate the tale he half-believed himfelf;
ow the blefled Virgin had appeared to him,
ond related the ftory you will read upon the
valls, which was then firft ccimmitted to

paper. In confequence of this intelligence,
Boniface fent men into the Eaft that he could

beft depend upon, and they brought back

jut fuch particulars as would beft pleafe the

Pope; and in thofe days you can fearce think
how quick the blaze of fuperftition caught and
22 - commu-

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 163

communicated itfelf: no one wifhed to deny
what his neighbour was willing to believe,
and what he himfelf would then have gained
no credit by contradi@ting. Pofitive evidence
of what the houfe really was, or whence itcame,
it was in a few years impoflible to obtain;
nor did Boniface the VI[th know it himfelf
I fuppofe, much lefs the old vifionary who
firft fet the matter a-going. Meantime the
houfe itfelf has xo foundation, whatever the
{tory may have; it is a very fingular houfe as
you may fee; it has been venerated by the
beft and wifeft among Chriftians now for five
hundred years: even the Turks (who have
the fame method of honouring their Prophet
with gifts, as we do the Virgin Mary) refpe&
the very name of Loretto:—why then fhould
the place be to any order of thinking beings a
juft obje& of infult or mockery ?”—Here
he ended his difcourfe, the recolleftion of
which never left me whilft we remained at
the place.

What Dr. Moore fays of the finging chap-
lains with /oprano voices, who fay mafs at the
altars of Loretto, is true enough, and may
perhaps have been originally borrowed from
the Pagan celebration of the rites of Cybele.

M 2 When

1

164 OBSERVATIONS IN A

When Chriftianity was young, and weak, and
tender, and unfupported by erudition, dread-
ful miftakes and errors eafily crept in: the hea-
then converts hearing much of Mater Dei, con-
founded her idea with that of their Mater Deo-
yum; and we were fhewn, among the rari~
ties of Rome, a bronze Madonna, with a tower
on her head, exaétly as Cybele is reprefented.

Thut the jewels are taken out of this trea-
fury and replaced with falfe ftones, is a fpeech
always faid over fine things by the vulgar:
I have heard the fame thing affirmed of the
diamonds at St. Denis; and can recollect the
common people faying, when our King of
England was crowned, that all the real pre-
cious ftones were locked up, or fold for ftate
expences; while the jewels fhewn to them
were only calculated to dazzle for the day.
As there is always infinite falfehood in the
world, fo there is always wonderful care,
however ill applied, to avoid being duped;
a terror which hangs heavily over weak minds
in particular, and frights them as far from
truth on the one fide, as credulity tempts
them away from it on the other.

But

/

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 165

But we muft vifit the apothecary’s pots,
painted by Raphael, and leave Loretto, to pro-
ceed along the fide of this lovely fea, hearing the
pilgrims fing moft fweetly as they go along in
troops towards the town, with now and then a
female voice peculiarly diftinguifhed from the
reft: by this means a new image is prefented to
one’s mind; the fight of fuch figures too half
alarm the fancy, and give an air of diftance
from England, which nothing has hitherto
infpired half fo ftrongly. This charming
Adriatic gulph befide, though more than de-
licious to drive by, does not, like the Medi-
terranean, convey homeifh or familiar ideas ;
one feels that it belongs exclufively to Venice;
one knows that ancient Greece is on the
oppofite fhore, and that with a quick fail one
fhould foon fee Macedonia; and defcending
but a little to the fouthward, vifit Athens,
Corinth, Sparta, Thebes—feats of philofophy,
freedom, virtue; whence models of excellence
and patterns of perfection have been drawn
for twenty fucceeding centuries !

Here are plenty of nightingales, but they
do not fing as well asin Hertfordfhire: birds
gain in colour as you approach the tropic, but

M 3 they

166 OBSERVATIONS IN A

they lofe in fong; under the torrid zone I
have heard they never fing at all; with us in
England the lateft leave off by midfummer,
when the work of incubation goes forward,
and the parental duties begin: the nightingale
too chufes the cooleft hour; and though I
have yet heard her in Italy only early in the
mornings, Virgil knew fhe fung in the night :

* Flet noétem, &c.*

To hear birds it is however indifpenfably
neceflary that there fhould be high trees; and
except in thefe parts of Italy, and thofe about
Genoa and Siefna, no timber of any good
growth canI find. ‘The roccolo too, and other
methods taken to catch fmall birds, which
many delight in eating, and more in taking,
leflen the quantity of natural mufic vex-
atioufly enough; while gaudy infects ill fup-
ply their place, and fharpen their flings at
pleafure when deprived of their greateft ene-
mies.. We are here lefs tormented than ufual
however, while the profpects are varied fo
that every look produces a new and beautiful
land{cape.

* Nightly lamenting, &c.
Ancona

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 167

Ancona is a town perfectly agreeable to
ftrangers, from the good humour with which
every nation is received, and every religion
patiently endured: fomething of all this the
{cholars fay may be found in the derivation of
its name, which being Greek I have nothing:
to do with. Pliny tells us its original, and
{ays ;

A Siculis condita eft colonia Ancona*.

That Dalmatia fhould be oppofite, yet to
us at prefent inacceflible, we all regret; |
drank {ea water however, fo did not leave
untafted the waves which Lucan {peaks of:

Tilic Dalmaticis obnoxia fluctibus Ancon +.

The fine turbots did not any of them fall to
our fhare; but here are good fifth, and, to fay
true, every thing eatable as much in per-
fection as poffible: I could never fince I ar-
rived at Turin find real caufe of complaint—
Jerious complaint I mean~ except at that fa-
vage-looking place called Radicofani; and
fome. other petty town in Tufcany, nezr

* The colony of Ancona, founded by Sicilians.
+ The beauteous gulph which fair Ancona laves,
Ancona wafh’d by white Dalmatian waves.

M 4 Sienna,

168 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Sienna, where I eat too many eggs and
grapes, becaufe there was nothing elfe.

Nice accommodations muft not be looked
for, and need not be regretted, where fo much
amufement during the day gives one good
difpofition to fleep found at night: the worft
is, men and women, fervants and matters,
muft often mefs together; but if one frets
about fuch things, it is better ftay at home.
The Italians like travelling in England no
better than the Englith do travelling in Italy ;
whilft an exorbitant expence is incurred by
the journey, not well repaid to them by the
waiters white chitterlins, tambour waiftcoats,
and independent ‘* No, Sir,” echoed round a
well-furnifhed inn or tavern; which puts
them but in the place of Socrates at the fair,
wio cried out—“ How many things have thefe
people gathered together that I do not want !—
A noble Florentine complained exceedingly to
me once of the Englifh hotels, where he
was made to help pay for thofe good gold
watches the fellows who attended him drew
from their pockets ; fo he fet up his quarters
comically enough at the waggoners full Moon
upon the old bridge at Bath, to be quit of the
fchiaviti, as he called it, of living like a gen-

tleman,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 1:69

tleman, ‘‘ where,” fays he, “1 am not known
to be one.” The truth is, a continental no-
bleman can have little heart of a country,
where, to be treated as a man of fafhion, he
muft abfolutely behave as fuch: his rank is
afcertained at home, and people’s deportment
to him regulated by long-eftablifhed cuftoms ;
nor can it be fuppofed flattering to its pre-
judices, to feel himfelf joftled in the ftreet, or
driven againft upon the road by a rich trader,
while he is contriving the cheapeft method of
going to look over his manufactory. Wealth
diffufed makes all men comfortable, and leaves
no man fplendid; gives every body two
difhes, but nobody two hundred. Objects of
fhow are therefore unfrequent in England,
and a foreigner who travels through our
ccuntry in fearch of pofitive fights, will, after
much money fpent, go home but poorly
entertained :—“ There is neither guarefima,”
will he fay, “ nor carnovale in any fenfe of
the word, among thofe infipid iflanders.”—
For he who does not love our government,
and tafte our manners which refult from it,
can never be delighted in England ; while
the inhabitants of our nation may always be

amufed

170 OBSERVATIONS IN A

amufed in theirs, without any efteem of it
at all.

I know not how Ancona produced all thefe
tedious reflexions: it is a trading place, and
a fea-port town. Men working in chains
upon the new mole did not pleafe me though,
and their infenfibility fhocks one:-— Give a
poor thief fomething, mafter,” fays one im-
pudent fellow;—* Son flato ladro padrone* ;”
—with a grin. That fuch people fhould be
corrupt or coarfe however is no wonder;
what furprifed me moft was, that when one
of our company fpoke of his conduét to a
man of the town—“* Why, what would you
have, Sir?”’—replies the perfon applied to—
“when the poor creature is ca/figato, it is
enough fure, no need to make him be me~
lancholy too:”—and added with true Italian
good-nature, ~‘ Siamo tutti peccatori }.”

The mole is a prodigious work indeed; a
warm friend to Venice can fcarce with its
fpeedy conclufion, as the ufeful and neceflary
parts of the project are already nearly accom-
plifhed, and it would be pity to feduce more

* I am a light-fingered fellow, Matter.
+ Weare all finners you know.
commerce

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 171

commerce away from Venice, which has
already loft fo much,

The triumphal arch of Trajan, defcribed -
by every traveller, and juftly admired by all;
white as his virtue, fhining as his character,
and durable as his fame; fixed our eyes a
long time in admiration, and made us, while we
examined the beautiful ftructure, recolle&t his
incomparable qualities to whom it was dedi-
cated,—“* Inter Cafares optimus* ,”—fays one
of their old writers: nor could eithercolumn or
arch be {fo fure a proof that he was thought
fo, as the wifh breathed at the inauguration
of fucceeding emperors; Sis tu felicior du-
gufto, melior Trajano}.

If thefe Ancona men were not proud of
themfelves, one fhould hate them ; defcended
as they are from thofe Syracufans liberated by
Timoleon, who freed them firft from the
tyranny of Dionyfius ; foftered afterwards by
Trajan, as peculiarly worth zs notice; and
patronifed in fucceeding times by the good
Corfini Pope, Clement XII. whofe care for
them appears by the ufeful /azaretto he built,

* The beft among the Cefars.

+ Mayft thou be Tee than Auguftus!—better than
Trajan ! !

(74 to

172 OBSERVATIONS IN A

“to fave,” faid he, “ our beft fubjeGs, our
fubjeéts of Ancona.”

But we are haftening forward as faft as our
broken carriage will permit, to Padua, where
we fhall leave it: thither to arrive, we pafs
through Senegallia, built by the Gauls, and
fill’ retaining the Gaulifh name, but now
little remarkable. What ftruck me moft was
my own crofling the Rubicon in my way back
to England, and our comfortable return ta

Bro O°E N'A,

AFTER admiring the high forehead and in-
nocent fimper of Baroccio’s beauties at Pefaro,.
where the beft European filk now comes from;
againft which the produce of Rimini vainly en-~
deavours to vie. That town was once anUm-
brian colony I think, and there is a fine memo-
rial there where Diccletianus repofuit, refolving
perhaps to end where Julius Cafar had begun;
he died at Salo however in Dalmatia,

Qua maris Adriaci longas ferit unda Salones.

Ravenna |’Antica tired more than it pleaf-
ed us; Fano is a populous pretty little town ;
but I know no reafon why it was originally

20 dedicated

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 173

dedicated to Fortune. Truth is, we are weary
of thefe facred fumes, and long to fee once
more our amiable friends at Venice and at
Milan.

I have miffed San Marino at laft, but re-
ceive kind affurances every day that the lofs
is {mall; being now little more than a con-
vent feated on a hill, which affords refuge for
robbers ; and that the prefent Pope meditates
its deftrution asa nufance to the neighbour-
ing towns. ‘There never was any coin ftruck
there it feems ; I thought there had: but the
train of refletions excited by even a diftant
view of it are curious enough as oppofed to
its protectrefs Rome; which, founded by
robbers and banditti, ends in being the feat of
fanctity and prieftly government ; while San
Marino, begun by a hermit, and fecluded
from all other ftates for the mere purpofes of
purer devotion, finifhes by its neceflary re-
moval as a repofitory for affaffins, and a re-
fuge for thofe who break the laws with vio-
lence.

Such is this variable and capricious world !
and fo dies away my defire to examine this -
political curiofity ; the extin@ion of which
I am half forry for. Privation is ftill a me-

lancholy

174 OBSERVATIONS IN A

lancholy idea, and were one to hear that the
race of wafps were extirpated, it would grieve
one.

Bologna affords one time for every medita-
‘tion. No inn upon the Bath road is more
elegant than the Pellegrino; and we regretted
our broken equipage the lefs as it drew us
flowly through fo fweet a country. The
medlar blofloms adorn the hedges with their
blanche rofes ; the hawthorn buthes, later here
than with us, perfume them; and the roads,
little travelled, do not torment one with the
duft as in England, where it not only offends
the traveller, but takes away fome beauty
from the country, by giving a brown or
whitifh look to the fhrubs and trees. We
fhall repofe here very comfortably, or at leaft
change our mode of being bufy, which re-
frefhes one perhaps more than pofitive idle-
nefs. “ But life,” fays fome writer, “ isa
continual fever ;” and {ure ours has. been éom-=
pletely fo for thefe two years. A charming
lady of our country, for whom I have the
higheft efteem, protefts fhe fhall be happy to
get back to London if it is only for the relief
of fitting ftill, and refolving to fee no more
fights: exchanging fafto, fiera, and frittura,

: for

- JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 175

for a muffin, a mop, and a morning newfpa-
per: three things equally unknown in Italy,
as the other three among us.

With regard to pictures however, /’ Appetit
vient en mangeant*, as I experienced com-
pletely when traverfing the Zampieri palace
with eagernefs that increafed at every ftep.
I once more half-worfhipped the works of di-
vine Guercino. Nothing fhall prevent my
going to his birth-place at Cento, whether in
our way or out of it.

We ran about the Specola again, and re-
ceived a thoufand polite attentions from the
gentleman who fhewed it. The piece of na-
tive gold here is much finer than that we faw
among the treafures of Loretto, which being
du nouveau continent is always inferior.
“ But every thing does,” as Monf. de Buf-
fon obferves, ‘* degenerate in the Weft
except birds;” and the Brazilian plumage
feems to furpafs all poflibility of further glow.
The continent however fhews us no fpecimens
preferved half as well as thofe of Sir Afhton
Lever. The marine rarities here at Bologna
are very capital; but I faw them to advantage

* Hating increafes one’s appetite.
now,

176 OBSERVATIONS IN A

now, in company of Mr. Chappelow. We
find this city at once hot, and loud, and pious ;
lefs empty of occupation though than laft
time; for here is a new Gonfaloniere cho-
fen in to-day, and the drums beat, and
the trumpets found, and fome donations
are diftributed about, much in the pro-
portions Tom Davis defcribes Garrick’s to
have been ; {mall pieces of money, and large
pieces of cake, with quantities of meat, bread,
and birds, borne about the town in proceffion,
to make difplay of 4zs bounty, who gives all
this away at the time he is elected into office.
Kids dreffed with ribbon therefore, alive and
carried on men’s fhoulders fhowily adorned,
lambs wafhed white as fnow, and pretty red
and white calves hanging their fimple faces
out of fine gilt bafkets, paraded the ftreets all
day. What ftruck us moft however was an
ox, handfomer and of a more filvery coat
than I thought an ox’s hide capable of being
brought to; his horns gold, and a garland of
rofes between them. This was beautiful ; re-
minded one of all one had ever read and heard
of victims going to facrifice ; and put in our
heads again the old ftories of Hercules, Eu-

ryftheus, &c.
t

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ty

At Bologna though, every thing puts peo-
ple in mind of their frayers; foa few good
women nothing doubting but when fhows
were going forward, religious meanings muft
be near at hand, dropt down on their knees
in the ftreet, and recommended themfelves, or
their dead friends perhaps, to heaven, with
fervent and innocent earneftnefs, while the
cattle pafled along. An Englith clergyman
in our company, hurt and grieved, yet half-
difpofed to laugh, cried, What are thefe
dear creatures muttering about now for, as if
their falvation depended upon it ?—It was ab-
furd enough to be fure; but in order to check
our tittering difpofition, I recollected to him,
that I had once heard an ignorant woman in
Hertfordfhire repeat the abfolution herfelf af.
ter the prieft, with equally ill-placed fervour :
for which he reprimanded her, and afterwards
explained to her the groflnefs of the impro-
priety. Whemwe have added to our ftock of
connoifleurfhip the graceful Sampfon, drink-
ing after his victory, by Guido, in this town,
we fhall quit it, and proceed through empty
and deferted Ferrara to

Vout. Il, N PADUA,

178 OBSERVATIONS IN A

YP’ RY Uae

We fet out then for Ferrara, in our kind
friend’s poft-chaife; that is, my maid and I
did: our good-natured gentlemen creeping
flowly after in the broken coach; and how
ended this projet for infuring fafety? Why
in the chaife lofing its hind wheel, and in our
return to the carriage we had quitted. But it
is for ever fo, I think ;—the fick folks live al-
ways, and the well ones die.

We took turn therefore and left our friends ;
but could not forbear a vifit to Cento, where
I wifhed much to fee what Guercino had done
for the ornament of his native place, and was °
amply repaid my pains by the fight of one
picture, which, for itsimmediate power over the
mind, at leaft over mine, has no equal even
in Palazzo Zampieri. It is a fcene highly
touching. ‘The appearance of our Saviour to
his Mother after his refurreCtion. The dig-
nity, the divinity of the Chrift! the terror-
checked tranfport vifible in the parent Saint,
whofe expreflive countenance and pathetic at-

titude

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 179

titude difplay fervent adoration, maternal ten-
dernefs, and meek humility at once! How
often have I faid, ¢his is the fineft picture. we
have feen yet! when looking on the Caraccis
and their fchool. I will fay no mere, the
painter’s art can go no further than ¢his. My
partial preference of Guercino to any thing
and to every thing, fhall not however bribe me
to fupprefs my grief and indignation at his
{trange method of commemorating his own
name over the altar where he was baptifed,
which fhocks every proteftant traveller by its
profanenefs, while the Romanifts admire his _
invention, and applaud his piety. Guercino
then, fo called becaufe he was the /itéle one-
eyed man, had a fancy to reprefent his real
appellation of Fobn Francis Barbieri in the
church ; and took this mode as an ingenious
one, painting St. John upon the right hand,
St. Francis on the left, as two large full-length
figures, and God the Father in the middle
with a long beard for Barbiert,

This is a mixture of Abel Drugger’s con-
trivance in the Alchymift, and the infantine
folly of three babies I once knew in England,
children of a nobleman, who were feverely
whipt by their governefs for playing at Father,

N 2 Son,

180 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Son, and Holy Ghoft, fitting upon three

chairs, with folemn countenances, in order to
imprefs their tender fancies with a reprefenta-
tion of what the good governefs innocently
and laudably had told them about the myfte-
rious and incomprehenfible ‘Trinity. Let
me add, that the eldeft of thefe babies was
not fix years old, and the youngeft but four,
when they were caught in the blafphemous
folly. Our Italians feem to be got very little
further at forty.

Padua appears cleaner and prettier than it
did laft year; but fo many things contribute
to make me love it better, that it is no won-
der one is prejudiced inits favour. It was /o
difficult to get fafe hither, the roads being very
bad, the people were fo kind when we were
here laft, and the very inn-keeper and his a{-
fiftants feemed fo obligingly rejoiced to fee
us again, that I felt my heart quite expand at
entering the Aquila d’oro, where we were foon
rejoined by Mr. and Mrs. Greatheed, with
whom we had parted in the Romagna, when
they took the Perugia road, inftead of return-
ing by Bologna, a place they had feen before.
Had we come three days fooner we might have
feen the tranfit of Mercury from Abate

Toaldo’s

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 181

Toaldo’s obfervatory ; but our own tranfit took
up all our thoughts, and it is a very great
mercy that we are come fafe at laft. I think
it was as much as four bulls and fix horfes
could do to drag us into Rovigo.

Bologna la Grafla
Ma Padua la paffa *,

fay the Venetians: and round thfs town
where the heat is indeed prodigious, they get
the beft vipers for the Venice treacle, I am
told. Here are quantities of curious plants
to be feen blooming now in the botanical]
garden, and our kind profeffor told me I need
not languifh fo for horfe chefnuts; for they
would all be in flower as we returned up the
Brenta from Venice. ‘* They are all in flower
now, Sir,” faid I, “in my own grounds, eight
miles from London: but our Englifh oaks are
not half fo forward as yoursare.” He recollected
the aphorifm fo mucha favourite with our coun-
try folks ; how a Britifh heart ought not to di-
late with the early funfhine of profperity, or
droop at the firft blafts of adverfe fortune, as

* Though fat Bologna feeds to the fill,
Our Padua is fatter ftill.
N 3 the

182 OBSERVATIONS IN A

the Britifh oak refufes to put out his leaves at
fummer’s early folicitations, and fcorns to
drop them at winter’s firft rude fhake.

Well! I have once more walked over St,
Antony’s church, and examined the bas reliefs
that adorn his fhrine; but their effe&t has
ceafed. Whoever has fpent fome time in the
Mutzum Clementinum is callous to the won-
ders which {culpture can perform.

Has one not read in Ullaa’s travels, of a
refting-place on the fide ofa Cordillera among
the Andes, where the afcending traveller is re-
gularly obferved to put on additional cloth-
ing, while he who comes down the mountain
feels fo hot that he throws his clothes away?
So it is with the fhrine of St. Antonio di Pa-
dua, and one’s paflion for the fculpture that
adorns it: while Santa Giuftina’s church re-
tains her power over the mind, a power ne-

ver miffed by fimplicity, while great effort

has often {mall effet. But we are haftening
to Venice, and fhall leave our cares and our
coach behind; fuperfluous as they both are,
in a city which admits of neither,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 182

Verge Nao Ge EK,

Our watery journey was indeed delightful ;
friendfhip, mufic, poetry combined their charms
with thofe of nature toenchantus,and make one
think the paflage was too fhort, though long-
ing to embrace our much-regretted fweet
companions. ‘The fcent of cdoriferous plants,
the {moothnefs of the water, the fweetnefs of
the piano forte, which allured to its banks many
of the gay inhabitants, who glad of a change
in the variety of their amufements, came
down to the fhores and danced or fang, as we
went by, feized every fenfe at once, and filled
me with unaffected pleafure. I longed to fee
the weeping willow planted along this elegant
ftream ; but the Venetians like to fee nothing
weep I fancy: yet the Salix Babylonica would
have a fine effe& here, and {pread to a pro-
digious growth, like thofe on which the cap-
tive [raelites once hung their harps, on the
banks of the river Euphrates. ‘“ Of all Eu-
rope however,’ Millar fays, “ it profpers
beft in penfive Britain ;”*

N 4 - Nor

154. OBSERVATIONS IN A

Nor prov’d the blifs that lulls Italia’s breaft,
When red-brow’d evening calmly finks to reft.

Thefe lines, quoted from Merry’s Paulina,
remind me of the pleafure we enjoyed in
reading that glorious poem as we floated down
the Brenta. I have certainly read no poetry
fince; that would be like looking at Sanfo-
vino’s fculpture, after having feen the Apollo,
the Venus, and the Flora Farnefe. The view
of Venice only made us fhut the book. Love-
ly Venice! wife in her councils, grave and
fteady in her juft authority, fplendid in her
palaces, gay in her cafinos, and charming in all,

Fama tra noi Roma pompofa e fanta,
Venezia ricca, faggia, e fignorile *,

fays the Italian who celebrates all their towns
by adding a well-adapted epithet to each. But
Sannazarius, who experienced in return for
it more than even Britifh bounty would have
beftowed, exalts it in his famous epigram to a
decided preference even over Rome itfelf.

*% Pompous and holy ancient Rome we call,
Venice rich, wife, and lordly over all.

Viderat

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 185
Viderat Adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis
Stare urbem, et toti ponere jura Mari ;
Nunc mihi Tarpeias quantum vis Jupiter, arces
Objice, et ila tui moenia Martis ait
Sit Pelago T ibrim prefers,urbem afpice utramque
Illam homines dices, hanc pofuiffe Deos.

And now really, if the fubje& did not bribe
me to admiration of them, I fhould have
much ado to think thefe fix lines better worth
fifty pounds a piece, the price Sannazarius
was paid for them, than many lines I have
read; as mythological allufions are always
cheaply obtained, and this can hardly be faid
to run with any peculiar happinefs: for if
Mars built the Wall, and Jupiter founded the
Capitol, how could Neptune juftly challenge
this laft among all people, to look on both, and
fay, That men built Rome, but the Gods
founded Venice. Had he faid, that after all
their pains, ¢his was the manner in which
thofe two cities would in future times ftrike
all impartial obfervers, it would have been
enough; and it would have been ¢rwe, and
when fiction has done its beft,

Le vray feul eft aimable *.
Dane eee sn ee NYT eS

* Truth alone is pleafing.

Here,

186 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Here, however, is the beft tranflation or imi-
tation I can make, of the beft praife ever given
to this juftly celebrated city. Baron Cronthal,
the learned librarian of Brera, gave me, when
at Milan, the epigram, and perfuaded me to
try at a tranflation, but I never could fucceed
till I had been upon the grand canal.

When Neptune firft with pleafure and furprife,

Proud from her fubjeét fea faw Venice rife ;

Let Jove, faid he, vaunt his fam’d walls no more,

Tarpeia’s rock, or Tyber’s fane-full thore ;

While human hands thofe glittering fabrics frame,

By touch celeftial beauteous Venice came.
It is a {weet place fure enough, and the caged *
nightingales who, when men are moft filent,
anfwer each other acrofs the canals, increafe
the enchantments of Venetian moon-light ;
while the full gondolas fkimming over the
tide with a lanthorn in their ftern, like glow-
worms of a dark evening, dafhing the cool
wave too as they glide along, leave no mo-
ments unmarked by peculiarity of pleafure.
The Doge’s wedding has however been lefs
brilliant this year; his galleys have been fent
to fight the Turks and Corfairs, and the
fplendor at home of courfe fuffers fome tem-

* Wilt thou have mufic? hark, Apollo plays,
And twenty caged nightingales fhall fing.
SHAKESPEARE.

porary

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 187

porary diminution ; but the corfo of boats in
the evening muft be for ever charming, and
the mufical parties upon the water delightful.
We paffed this morning in Pineili’s library, a
colletion fo valuable from the frequence of
old editions, particularly the old fourteen
hundreds as we call them, that it is fuppofed
they will be purchafed by fome crowned head ;
and here are fpecimens of Aldus’s printing too,
very curious; but there are too many curiofities,

I’m ftrangled with the watte fertility,

as Milton fays. Pinelli had an excellent tafte
for pictures likewife, and here at Venice there
are paintings to fatisfy, nay fatiate connoifleur-
fhip herfelf. ‘Tintoret’s force of colouring at
St. Rocque’s, difplayed in the crucifixion, can
furely be exceeded by no difpolition of light
and fhade; but theScuola Bolognefe has hard-
ened my heart againft merit of any other fort,
fo much more eafy to be obtained, than that
of character, dignity, and truth. Paul Vero-
nefe forgets too feldom his original trade of
orefice, there is too much gold and filver in his
drapery; and though Darius’s ladies are judi-
cioufly adorned with a great deal of it here
at Palazzo Pifani, I would willingly have

abated

188 OBSERVATIONS IN A

abated fome brocade, for an addition of ex=
preflive majefty in the Alexander. What a
ftriking difference there is too between Guer-
cino’s prodigal returned, and a picture at fome
Venetian palace of the fame ftory treated by
Leandro Baflano! yet who can forbear crying
out Nature, nature! when in the laft named
work one fees the faithful fpaniel run out to
meet and acknowledge his poor young mafter
though in rags, while the cook admiring the
uncommon fatnefs of the calf, feems ta anti-
cipate the pleafure of a jolly day: fo if the
old father does look a little like pantaloon,
why one forgives him, for we are not told
that the fable had to do with wobilta, though
Guercino has made /zs mafter of the houfe a
rich and ftately oriental, who meets and con-
foles, near a column of Grecian architecture,
his penitent fon, whofe half-uncovered form
exhibits beauty funk into decay, and whofe
graceful expreffion of fhame and forrow fhew
the dignity of his original birth, and little ex-
peCtation of the ill-endured pains his poverty
has caufed: the elder brother, meantime,
glowing with refentment, and turning with
apparent fcorn away from the fight of a fcene
fo little to the honour of the family. Bafta!

as

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 189

as the Italians fay; when we were at Rome
we purchafed a fine view of St. Mark’s Place
Venice; now we are at Venice we have
bought a fketch of Guido’s Aurora. The
Doge’s dinner was magnificent, the plate older
and I think finer than the Pope’s; I forget
on what occafion it was given, I mean the
feaft, but had it been an annual ceremony our
kind friends would have fhewn it us laft year.
We mufi leave them once more, for a long
time I fear, but I part with lefs regret becaufe
the heat grows almoft infupportable; and
either the ftench of the fmall canals, or elfe
the too great abundance of fardelline, a frefh
anchovy with which thefe feas abound, keep
me unwell and in perpetual fear of catching
a putrid fever, fhould I indulge in eating once
again of fo rich but dangerous a dainty. Be-
fides that one may be tired of exertion, and
fatigued with feftivity, purchafed at the price
of fleep and quict.

Non Hybla non me fpecifer capit Nilus,

Nec que paludes delicata Pomptinus

Ex arce clivi fpectat uva Seftini.

Quid concupiicam ? queris ergo,—dormire*,

* Not Hybla’s fweets, nor Naples devoloons,
Nor grapes which hide the hill with rich feftoons ;
Nor fat Bologna’s valley, have I chofe;

What is your with then ? May I {peak ?—repo/e.

9

1gO OBSERVATIONS IN &A

A Oo” Py A ees

THEN we returned the twelfth of June, and
furely it is too difficult to defcribe the fweet
fenfations excited by the enjoyment of

Each rural fight, each rural found ;

as the dear banks of the Brenta firft faluted our
return to ¢erra_jirma from the watery refidence
of our bella dominante. We dined at a lovely
villa belonging to an amiable friend upon the
margin of the river, where the kind embraces
of the Padrona di Cafa, added to the fragrance
of her garden, and the fweet breath of oxen
drawing in her team, revived me once more ta
the enjoyment of cheerful converfation, by
reftoring my natural health, and proving be-
yond a poffibility of doubt, that my late difor-
der was of the putrid kind. We dined in a
grotto-like room, and partook the evening re-
frefhments, cake, ice, and lemonade, under a
tree by the river fide, whilft my own feelings
reminded me of the failors delight defcribed
in Anion’s voyages when they landed at Juan

Fernandez.

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 1o%

Fernandez. Night was beft difpofed of in the
barge, and I cbferved as we entered Padua
early in the morning, how furprifingly quick
had been the progrefs of fummer; but in
thefe countries vegetation is fo rapid, that
every thing makes hafte to come and more to
go. Scarce have you tafted green peafe or
ftrawberries, before they are out of feafon; and
if you do wot {wallow your pleafures, as Ma-
dame la Prefidente faid, you have a chance to
mifs of getting any pleafures at all. Here is
no mediocrity in any thing, no moderate
weather, no middle rank of life, no twilight ;
whatever is not night is day, and whatever is
not love is hatred; and that the Englifh
fhould eat peaches in May, and green peafe
in Odtober, founds to Italian ears as a miracle ;
they comfort themfelves, however, by faying
that they mu/? be very infipid, while we know
that fruits forced by ftrong fire are at leaft
many of them higher in flavour than thofe
produced by fun ; the pine-apple particularly,
which Weft Indians confefs eats better with us
than with them. Figs and cherries, however;
defy a hot-houfe, and grapes raifed by art are
worth little except for fhew; peaches, nectarines,
and ananas are the glory of a Britifh gardener,

ol and

192 OBSERVATIONS IN A

and no country but England can fhew fuch.
Our morning, paffed at the villa of the fenator
Quirini, fet us on this train of thinking, for
every culled excellence adorned it, and brought
to my mind Voltaire’s defcription of Pococu-
ranti in Candide, falfe only in the oftentation,
and there the character fails; mifled by a French
idea, that pleafure is nothing without the de-
light of fhewing that you are pleafed, like the

old adage, or often-quoted paflage shout learn-

ing:
Scire tuum nihil eft, nifi te feire hoc fciat alter *.
A Venetian has no fuch notions; by force of

mind and dint of elegance inherent in it, he

pleafes himfelf firft, and finds every body elfe

delighted of courfe, nor would quit his own

country except for paradife; while an Englifh

nobleman clumps his trees, and twifts his river,

to comply with his neighbour’s tafte, when per-=
haps he has none of his own; feels difgufted
with all he has done, and runs away to live
in Italy.

The evening of this day was {pent at the
theatre, where I was glad the audience were
no better pleafed, for the plaudits of an Italian

* Thy knowledge is nothing till other men know that

thou knoweft it.
Platea

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 193

Platea at an air they like, when one’s nerves
are weak and the weather very hot, are all ©
but totally infupportable. What then muft
thefe poor actors have fuffered, who laboured
fo violently to entertain us? A tragedy in
thyme upon the fubjec& of Julius Sabinus and
his wife Epponina was the reprefentation; and
wonderfully indeed did the players ftruggle,
and bounce, and fprunt, like vigorous patients
refifting the influence of a difeafe called opif-
thotonos, or dry gripes of Jamaica; “ Were
their jaws once locked we fhould do better,”
faid Mr. Chappelow. ‘ Che fpacca monti
mai!”’ exclaimed the gentle Padovani. Spacca
monte means juft our Englifh Drawcanfir, a
fellow that fplits mountains with his blufter,
a captain Blowmedown.

The fair at Padua is a better place for
{pending one’s time than the theatre; it is
built round a pretty area, and I much wonder
the middle is not filled by a band of mufic.
Our Aftley is expected to fhine here fhortly,
and the ladies are in hafte to fee bel Inglefe
a Cavallo; but we mutt be feduced to ftay no
longer among thofe whom I muft ever leave
with grateful regret and truly affectionate
regard. Our carriage is repaired, and the man

Vor. I. O fays

194 OBSERVATIONS IN A

{ays it-will now carry us fafely round the world
if we pleafe; our firft ftage however will be
no farther than to pretty

Tue road from Padua hither is a vile one;
one can fearcely make twenty miles a-day in
any part of the Venetian ftate. Its fenators,
accuftomed to water carriage, have little care
for us who go by land. ‘The Palanzuola
way is worfe however, and I am glad once
more to fee {weet Verona.

Petruchio and Catharine might eafily have
met with all the adventures related by Grumio
on their journey thither, but when once ar-
rived fhe fhould have been contented. This
city is as lovely as ever, more fo than it was
Jaft April twelvemonth, when the {pring was
fullen and backward; every hill now glows
with the gay produce of fummer, and every
valley fmiles with plenty expected or pleafure
poffeffed.. The antiquities however look lefs

13 refpectable

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ios
‘efpectable than when I left them; no am-
phitheatre will do after the Roman Coloflzum,
and our triumphal arch here looked fo pitiful,
{ wondered what was come to it. So muft it
always happen tothe performances of art, which
we compare one againft another, and find
that as man made the heft of them, fo fome
man may in fome moment make a better {till :
but the productions of nature are the works
of God; we can only compare them with
other things done by the fame Almighty Maf-
ter, whofe power is équally difcernible in all,
from the fly’s antenne to the elephant’s pro=
bofcis. Bozza’s colle€tion gave birth to this
laft fentence; the farther one goes the more
aftonifhing grows his mufeum, the neglect of
which is fure no credit to the prefent age. I
find his cabinet much fuller than I left it, and
adorned with many new fpecimens from the
fouthern feas, befides flying-fith innumerable,
beautifully preferved, and one predaceous
creature caught in the very ac of gorging his
prey, a proof of their deftruction being inftant
as that of the dwellers in Pompeia, who had
their dinners difhed when the eruption over-
whelmed them.

O22” We

196 OBSERVATIONS iN A

We took leave of our learned friends here
with concern, but hope to fee them again, and
tread the flucco floors fo prettily mottled and
variegated, they look like the cold mock turtle
foup exactly, which London paftry-cooks keep
in their fhops, ready for immediate ufe.

What an odd thing is cuftom! here is weather
to fry one in, yet after exercife, and in a ftate
of the moft violent perfpiration, no confe+
quences follow the ufe of iced beverages, ex-
cept the fenfe of pleafure refulting from them,
at the moment. Shoulda Bath belle indulge
in fuch luxury, after dancing down forty
couple at Mr. Tyfon’s ball, we fhould expe&
to hear next day of her furfeit at leaft, if not
of her fudden death. Lying-in ladies take
the fame liberty with ¢bezr conflitutions, and
fay that no harm comes of it; and when I telt
them how differently we manage in England,
ery, “© mi pare che dev'effere [chiavitu grande
in quel pacfe della benedetta liberta*,”” Fine
muflin linen nicely got up is however, fay
they, one of the things to be produced only in
Great Britain, and much do our Italian ladies
admire it, though they look very charmingly

%* Methinks there feems to be much -flavery required
from thofe who inhabit your fine free country of England.

with

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ‘197

with much lefs trouble taken. I lent one lady
at fome place, I remember, my maid, to fhew
her, as fhe fo much wifhed it, how the ope-
ration of clear-ftarching was performed; but
as foon as it began, fhe laughed at the fuper-
fluous fatigue, as fhe called it; and her fer-
vants erofled themfelves in every corner of
the room, with .wonder that fuch niceties
fhould be required.—Well they might! for
I caught a great tall fellow ironing his lady’s
beft neck-handkerchief with the warming-
pan here at Padua very quietly ; and the was
a woman of quality too, and looked as lovely,
when the toilette was once performed, as if
much more attention had been beftowed
upon. it,

P ARM A.

We paffed through Mantua the 18th of
June, where nothing much attracted my no-
tice, except a female figure in the ftreet, veiled
fromm head to foot, and covered wholly in
black; fhe walked backward and forward
along the fame portion of the fame ftreet, from
one to three o’clock, in the heat of the burn-

O03 ing

198 OBSERVATIONS IN A

ing fun; her hand held out; but when f,
more from curiofity than any better motive
put money in it, fhe threw it filently away, and
the beggars picked itup, while fhe held her hand
again as before. This conduét, in any town of
England, would be deemed madnefs or mif
chief; the woman would be carried beforea
magiftrate to give an account of herfelf, fhould
the mob forbear to uncafe her till they came;
or fome charitable perfon would feize and
carry her home, fill her pockets with money,
and coax her out of the anecdotes of her paft
life to put in the Magazine; her print would
be publifhed, and many engravers ftruggle
for its profits; the name at bottom, Aunabella,
or the Sable Matron; while novels would be
written without end, and the circulating li-
braries would lend them out all the live-long
day. Things are differently carried on how=
ever at Mantua: I afked one fhopkeeper, and
the gravely replied, “* per divozione,” and took
no further notice: another (to my inquiries,
which appeared to him far odder than the wo-
man’s conduc) faid, Thelady was poflibly doing
a little penance ; that he had not minded her
till l fpoke, but that perhaps it might be fome
woman of fafhion, who having refufed a poor

perfon

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. — 1g9

perfon roughly on fome occafion, was con-
demned by her confeflor to try for a couple
of hours what begging was, and learn huma-
nity from experience of evil. The idea
charmed me; while the man coolly faid, all
this was only his conjeCture; but that fuch
things were done too often to attract atten-
tion; and hoped fuch virtue was not rare
enough to excite wonder. My juft applaufe
of fuch fentiments was ftopt by the Jas
guais de place calling me to dinner; when
he informed me, that he had afked about the
perfon whofe behaviour ftruck me fo, and
could now tell me all there was to be known:
fhe was a lady of quality, he faid, who had
loft a dear friend on that day fome years paft,
and that fhe wore black for two hours ever
fince upon its anniverfary; but that fhe
would now change her drefs, and I fhould
fee her in the evening at the opera. My re-
colleQting that if ¢hzs were her cafe, I ought to
have been keeping her company (as no one
ever loft a friend fo dear to them as was my
incomparable mother, who likewife left me to
mourn her lofs on this day thirteen years),
fpoiled my appetite, and took from me all
power of meeting the lady at the theatre.

O4 We

————

200 OBSERVATIONS IN A

We went again however to fee Virgil’s
field, and recolle&ed that tenet nunc Par-
thenope ; congratulated the giants on their fu-
petiority over Pietro de Cortona’s paltry
creatures, in one of the Roman palaces; and
drove forward to Parma, through bad roads
enough.

This Mantua is a very difagreeable town;
nor was Romeo wrong in lamenting his ba~
nifhment to it ; for though I will not fay with
him that—

There is no world without Verona’s walls ;

“yet it muft be allowed that few places do

unite fuch various excellencies, and that the
contraft is very ftriking between that city and
this. ;

Parma exhibits an appearance fomewhat
different from all the reft; yet we fhould
{carcely have vifited it but for the fake of the
four furprifing pictures it contains: the Ma-
dona della Scodella is nature itfelf; and St.
Girolamo exhibits fuch a proof of fancy and
fervour, as are almoft inconceivable ; the ge-
neral effeét, and the difficulty one has to take
one’s eye off it, afford conviction of its fu-

perior

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 201

perior merit, and greatly compenfate for that
tafte, charaéter, and expreflion, which are
found only in the Caraccis and their fchool.
Corregio was perhaps one of the moft power-
ful geniuffes that has appeared on earth ;
deftitute of knowledge, or of the means of ac-
quiring it, he has left glorious proofs of what
uninftruéted man may do, and is perhaps a
greater honour to the human fpecies, than
thofe who, from fermenting erudition of va-
rious kinds, produce performances of more
complicated worth. The Fatal Curiofity, and
Pilgrim’s Progrefs, will live as long as the
Prince of Abyflinia, or Les Auaniures de Te-
lemaque, perhaps: and who fhall dare fay, that
Lillo, Bunyan, and Antonio Corregio, were
not zaturally equal to Johnfon, Michael An-
gelo, and the Archbifhop of Cambray ?—
Have I faid enough, or can enough be ever
faid in praife of a painter, whofe works the
great Annibale Caracci delighted to ftudy, to
copy, and to praife ?

Piacenza we found to offer us few objects
of attention: an zmprovifatore, and not a very.
bad one, amufed that time which would
otherwife have been pafled in lamenting our

paucity:

262 OBSERVATIONS IN A

paucity of entertainment; while his artful
praifes of England put me in good humour,
fpite of the weather, which is too hot to bear.
‘With all our lamentations about the heat
however, here is no cica/a on the trees, or
fucciola in the hedges, as at Florence; the days
are a little longer too, and the crepufcule lefs
abrupt in its departure. How often, upon
the Ponte della Trinitd, have I fecretly re-
gretted the long-drawn evenings of an Eng-
ith fummer; when the dewy night-fall re-
-frefhes the air, and filent dufk brings on a
train of meditations uninfpired by Italian
fkies! In this decided country all that is not
broad day is dark night; all that is not loud
mirth, is penitence and grief; when the rain
falls, it falls ina torrent; when the fun fhines,
it glows like a burning-glafs; where the
people are rich, they flick gems in their very
walls, and make their chimneys of amethyft;
where they are poor, they clafp your knees
in an agony of pinching want, and difplay

difeafes which cannot be a day furvived!
Talking on about Italy in which there is nq
mediocrity, and of England in which there is
nothing elfe, we arrived at Lodi; where I
began

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 203

began to rejoice in hearing the people cry .
no cor altr’ again, in reply to our com-
mands ; becaufe we were now once more re-
turned to the diftri&t and diale&t of dear
Milan, where we have cool apartments and
warm friends; and where, after an abfence
of fifteen months, we fhall again fee thofe
acquaintance with whom we lived much
before; a fenfation always delightfully footh-
ing, even when one returns to lefs amiable
fcenes, and lefs productive of innocent plea-
fure than thefe have been tome. The con-
fcioufnefs of having, while at a diftance, feen
few people more agreeable than thofe one left
behind; the natural thankfulnefs of one’s
heart to God, for having preferved one’s life
fo as to fee them again, expands philan-
‘thropy; and gives unaffected comfort in the
reftored fociety of companions long concealed
from one by accident or diftance.

a4 OBSERVATIONS IN A

M IL AN.

aif June 1786.

AFTER rejoicing over my houfe and my
friends; after afking a hundred queftions,
and hearing a hundred ftories of thofe long
left; after reciprocating common civilities,
and talking over common topics, we ob-
ferved how much the general look of Milan
was improved in thefe laft fifteen months ;
how the town was become neater, the ordi-
nary people {marter, the roads round their
city mended, and the beggars cleared away
from the fireets. We did not find however
that the people we talked to were at all
charmed with thefe new advantages: their
convents demolifhed, their procefflions put an
end to, the number of their priefts of courfe
contraéted, and their church plate carried by
cart-loads to the mint; holidays forbidden,
and every faint’s name erafed from the ca-
lendar, excepting only St. Peter and St. Paul ;
whilft thofe fhopkeepers who worked for

monatteries,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. (205

monafteries, and thofe muficians who fung or
played in oratorios, are left to find employ-
ment how they can;——cloud the counte-
nances of all, and juftly; as fuch fudden and
rouch reforms fhock the feelings of the mul-
titude ; offend the delicacy of the nobles;
make a general ftagnation of bufinefs and of
pleafure, in a country where doth depend upon
religious functions; and terrify the clergy
into no ill-grounded apprehenfions of being
found in a few years more wholly ufelefs, and
as fuch difmiffed.—Well! whatever is done
haftily, can fearcely be done quite well; and
wherever much is done, a great part of it will
doubtlefs be done wrong. A confiderable
portion of all this however will be confefled
ufeful, and even neceflary, when the hour
of violence on one fide, and prejudice on the
other, is paft away; as the fire of London has
been found beneficial by thofe who live in the
newly-reftored town. Meantime I think the
prefent precipitaticn indecent enough for my
own part; a thoufand little errors would burn
out of themfelyes, were they fuffered to die
quietly away; and when the morning breaks
in naturally, it is fuperfluous as awkward to
put the ftars out with one’s fingers, like the

. Hours

206 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Hours inGuercino’sAurora*. Whoever theres
fore will be at the pains a little to pick their
principles, not grafp them by the bunch, will
find as many unripe at one end, I believe, as
there are rotten at the other: for could we
fee thefe hafty innovators erefting public
{chools for the inftruétion of the poor, or
public work-houfes for their employment ;
did they unlock the treafure-houfe of true rea
ligion, by publifhing the Bible in every diale&
of their dominions, and oblige their clergy to
read it with the fouls committed to their
charge ;—I fhould have a better idea of their
fincerity and difinterefted zeal for God’s
glory, than they give by tearing down his
ftatues, or thofe of his bleffed Virgin Mother,
which Carlo Borromezo fet up.

The folly of hanging churches with red
damafk would furely fade away of itfelf,
among people of good fenfe and good tafte ;
who could not long be fimple enough to fup=
pofe, that concealing Greek architeCture with
fuch tranfient finery, and giving to God’s
houfe the air of a tattered theatre, could in

* In the fine cieling of Palazzo Ludovigi at Rome,
the Hours which furround Aurora’s chariot are employed
in extinguifhing the Stars with their hands.

any

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 2cy

any wife promote his fervice, or their falva-
tion. Many fuperftitious and many unmean~
ing ceremonies do die off every day, becaufe
unfupported by reafon or religion: Doctor
Carpanni, a learned lawyer, told me but to-
day, that here in Lombardy they hada cut-
tom, no longer ago than in his father’s time,
of burying a great lord or pofleffor of lands, |
with a ceremony of killing on his grave the
favourite horfe, dog, &c. that he delighted in
when alive ; a ufage borrowed from the On-
ental Pagans, who burn even the widows of the
deceafed upon their funeral pile; and among
our monuments in Weftminfter Abbey, fet up
in the days of darknefs, I have minded now
and then the hawk and greyhound of a noble-
man lying in marble at his feet; fome of our
antiquarians fhould tell us if they killed
them.

Another odd affinity firikes me. Half a
century ago there was an annual proceffion at
Shrewibury, called by way of pre-eminence
Shrew/bury Show ; when a handfome young
girl of about twelve years old rode round the
town, and wifhed profperity to every trade
affembled at the fair: I forget what elfe
made the amufement interefting; but have
heard my mother tell of the particular beauty
of

”

908 . OBSERVATIONS IN A

of fome wench, who was ever after called the
Queen, becaufe the had been carried in triumph
as fuch on the day of Shrew/bury Show. Now.
if nobody gives a better derivation of that
old cuftom, it may perhaps be found a dreg
of the Romith fuperitition, which as many
years ago, in various parts of Italy, prompted
people to drefs up a pretty girl, on the 25th
of March, or other feafon dedicated to the
Virgin, and carry her, in proceflion about the
ftreets, finging litanies to her, &c. and end=.
ing, in profanenels of admiration, a day begun
in idlenefs and folly. At Rome however no
fuch indecorous abfurdities are encouraged:
we faw a beautiful figure of the Madonna,
dreffed from a picture of Guido Rheni, borne
about one day; but no human creature in
the ftreet offered to kneel, or gave one the
flighteft reafon to fay or fuppofe that fhe was
worfhipped: fome fweet hymns were {ung in
her praife, as the proceflion moved flowly on;
but no impropriety could I difcern, who
watched with great attention,

It is time tohave done with all this though,
and go fee the Ambrofian library ; which, as
far es I can judge, is perfectly -refpectable.
The Prefe&’s politenefs kindly offered my
curiofity any thing I was particularly anxious

Q to

*

&

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 209

to fee, and the learned Mr. Dugati was ex-
ceedingly obliging. The old Virgil preferved
here with Petrarch’s marginal notes in his
own hand-writing, intereft one much; this
little narration; evidently written for his own
fancy to feed on, of the day and hour he firft
felt the impreffion of Laura’s charms, is the
beft proof of his genuine paflion for that lady,
as he certainly never meant for our infpec-
tion what he wrote down in his own Virgil.
Here is likewife the valuable MS. of Flavius
Jofephus the Jewifh hiftorian, a curiofity de-
fervedly admired and efteemed: it is kept
with peculiar care I think, and is in high
prefervation: A Syriac bible too, very fine
indeed, from which I underftand they are
now going to print off fome copies. I have
been taught by the fcholars not to think a
Syriac bible of the Samaritan text fo very
rare; but the Septuagint in that language is fo
exceedingly fearce, that many are perfuaded
this is the only one extant; and as our Lord,
in his quotations from the old law, ufually
cites that verfion, it is juftly preferred to all
others. Leonardo da Vinci's famous folio
preferved in this library, for which James I.
of England offered three thoufand ducats, an

Vox. Il. P event

210 OBSERVATIONS IN A

event recorded here over the cheft that cori
tains it on a tablet of marble, deferves atten=
tion and reverence: nothing feems above,
“nothing below, the obfervation of that prodi-
gious genius. He has in this, and other volumes
of the fame curious work, apparently put down
every painter's or mathematician’s thought that
croffed his imagination. It is a Leonardiana™,

the common-place book of a great and wife.

man ; nor did our Britith fovereign ever with
more good fenfe evince his true love of learn-
ing, tham by his princely offer of its purchafe.

Till now the looking at friends, and
rarities, and telling old ftcries, and feeing
new fights, &c. has lulled my confcience
afleep, nor fuffered me to recollect that,
dazzled by the brightnels of the Corregios at
Parma, the account of their prefs, the fineft
in Europe, and infinitely fuperior to our
Bafkeryille, efcaped me. They have a glo-
rious colle€tion too of bibles in their library ;
their illuminations are moft delicate, and their

* One volume of this Leonardiana is now in the private
library of the king of England at the queen’s houfe in the
park, preferved from Charles or James the Firft’s collec-
tion, and written with the left hand, or rather backwards,
to be read only with the help of a mirror.

bind-

en

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. rt

bindings pompous, but they poffefs a modern
MS. of fuch fingular perfeCtion, that none of
thofe finifhed when chirography was more
cultivated than it is now, can at all pretend to
compare with it. The characters are all gilt,
the leaves vellum, the miniatures finifhed
with a degree of nicety rarely found in union,
as here, with the utmoft elegance and tafte.
No words I can ufe will give a juft idea of
this little MS.: whoever is a true fancier of
fuch things, would find his trouble well repaid,
if he left London only to look at it. The book
contains private devotions for the duchefs with
fuitable ornaments—I will talk no more of it.
The fine coloflal figure of the Virgin
Mary in heaven crowned by her Son’s
hand, painted in the cieling of fome church
at Parma, has a bad light, and it is difficult
to comprehend its fublimity. One ap-
proaches nearer to underitand the merits of
that fingular performance when one looks at
Caracci’s copy of it, kept in the Ambrofian
library here at Milan. But how was I fur-
prifed to hear related as a fact happening to
him, the old ftory told to all who go to fee
St. Paul’s cathedral in London, of our Sir
James Thornhill, who, while he was intent
ez on

ai2 OBSERVATIONS IN A ~

on painting the cupola, walked backward td
look at the effect, till, arriving at the very
edge of the fcaffold, he was in-danger of dafh-
ing his brains out by falling: from that hor-
rible height upon the marble below, had not
fome byftander pofleffed readinefs of mind to
run fuddenly forward, and throw a pencil
daubed in white ftuff which ftood near him,
at the figure Sir James’s eyes were fixed on,
which provoked the painter to follow him —
threatening, and fo faved his life. Could
fuch an accident have happened twice? and
is it likely that to either of thefe perfons it
ever happened at all? Would fuch men as
Annibal Caracci and Sir James Thornhill
have expofed themfelves upon an undefended
{caffold, without railing it round to prevent
their tumbling down, when engaged in a
work that would take them many days, nay
weeks, to finifh it? Impoflible! in every
nation traditionary tales fhake my belief ex-
ceedingly ; and what aftonifhes one more
than it difgufts, if poffible, is to fee the fame

ftory fitted to more nations than one.
It is now many years fince a counfellor re-
lated at my houfe in Surrey the following nar
ration, of which I had then no doubts, or idea
A, of

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 213

of fufpicion ; for he faid he was himfelf wit-
nefs to the faa, and laid the fcene at} St. Ed-
mondfbury, a town in our county of Suffolk:
how a man accufed of murder, with every
corrobora”ing circumftance, efcaped by the
{teady refolution of ane juryman, who could
not, by any arguments or remonftrances of
his companions, be prevailed on to pronounce
the fellow guilty, though every poffible cir+
cumf{tance combined to afcertain him as the
perfon who took the deceafed’s life jagnd.how,
after all was over, the juryman confeffed ‘pri-
vately to the judge, that be himfelf, by fac
and fuch an accident, had killed the farmer,
of whofe death the other ftood accufed.
This event, true or falfe, of which I have
fince found the rudiments in a French Re-
cueil, was told me at Venice by a gentleman as
having happened ¢4ere, under the immediate
infpection of a friend he named. Quere,
whether any fuch thing ever happened at all
in any time or place? but laxity of narra-
tion, and contempt of all exaétnefs, at
laft extinguifh one’s beft-founded confi-
dence in the lips of mortal man. — It is, how-
ever, clearly proved, that no duty is fo diffi-
cult as to preferve truth in all our tranfactions,
while no tranfadtion is fo trifling as to pre-

Jt Se. clude

214, OBSERVATIONS IN A

clude temptation of infringing it: for if there
is no intereft that prompts a lar, his vanity
- fuffices; nor will we mention the fuggeftions
of cowardice, malignity, or any fpecies of
vice, when, as in thefe laft-mentioned ftories,
many fi@tions are invented by well-meaning
people, who hope to prevent mifchief, incul-
cate the poflibility of hanging innocence, &c.

and violate truth out of regard to virtue.
Well, well! our good Italians here will not
condefcend to live or lie, if now and then they
{cruple not to tell one. No man in this
country pretends either to tendernefs or to in-
difference, when he feels no difpofition to be
indifferent or tender; and fo removed are
they from all affectation of fenfibility or of re-
finement, that when a conceited Englifhman
ftarts back in pretended rapture from a Ra-=
phael he has perhaps little tafte for, it is dif-
ficult to perfuade thefe fincerer people that his
tranfports are poflibly put on, only to deceive
fome of his countrymen who ftand by, and
who, if he took no notice of fo fine a picture,
would laugh, and fay he had been throwing
his time away, without making even the com-
mon and neceflary improvements expected
from every gentleman who travels through
Italy; yet furely it is a choice delight to
live

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 215°

live where the everlafting fcourge held over’
London and Bath, of what will they think ?
and what will they fay? has no exiftence ;
and to’ refle&@ that I have now fojourned
near two years in Italy, and fcarcely can name
one conceited man, or one affected woman,
with whom, in any rank of life, I have been
in the leaft connected.

In Naples we fee the works of nature dif
played ; at Rome and Florence we furvey
the performances of art; at every place in
italy there is much worthy one’s efteem, faid
the Venetian Refident one day very elegantly ;
and at Milan there is the date Bofi. Should
I forbear to add my teftimony to fuch talents
and fuch virtue, which, expanded by nature
to the wide range of human benevolence, he
knows how to concentre occafionally for the
fervice of private friendfhip, how great would
be my ingratitude and negle&, while no
character ever fo completely refembled his, as
that of the famous Hough well known in
England by the title of the good Bithop of
Worcefter. His ingenuity in compofing and
placing thefe words on the 13th of May
1775, is perhaps one of ‘his leaft valuable
jeux d'efprit; but pretty, when one kaows

P 4 that

216 OBSERVATIONS IN A

that on that day the emprefs was born, on
that day the archduke arrived at Milan on
a vifit to his brother, and on that day the
duchefs was delivered of a fon. The words
may be read qur way or the Chinefe ;

WNatalis Adventus Partus

Matris Fratris Conjugis

Felix Optatus Incolumis

Principem Aulam Urbem
Leétificabant, |

What a foolith thing it is in princes to give
pain in a place like this, where all are difpofed
to derive pleafure even from praifing them!
There is a natural loyalty among the Lom-
- bards, which oppreflion can {carcely extinguith,
or tyranny deftroy; and, as I have faid a
thoufand times, they pretend to love no one;
they do love their rulers; and, rather grieve
than growl at the afflictions caufed by their
rapacity.

I was told that I fhould find few difcrimi-
nations of character in Italy ; but the contrary
proves true, and I do not wonder at ii Among
thofe people who, by being folded or driven
all together in flocks as the French are, with
one fafhion to ferve for the whole fociety, a
man may eafily contract a fimilarity of man-

rts

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 20y

mers by rubbing down each afperity of cha-
racter again{ft his neareft neighbour, no lefs
plaftic than himfelf; but here, where there
is little apprehenfion of ridicule, and little {pi-
rit of imitation, monotonous tedioufneds is al-
moft fure to be efcaped, The very word fo-
lite comes from poli/b I fuppofe; and at Paris
the place where you enjoy /e veritable vernis
St. Martin in perfetion, the people can
_ {carcely be termed polz/hed, or even varnifhed :
they are glazed; and every thing flides off
the exferieur af courfe, leaving the heart un-
touched. It is the fame thing with other pro-
ductions of nature; in caverns we fee petri-
factions fhooting out in angular and excentric
forms, becaufe in Caftleton Hole dame Nature
has fair play; while the broad beach at
Brighthelmftone, evermore battered by the fame
ocean, exhibits only a heap of round pebbles,
and thofe round pebbles all alike.

But we mutt ceafe reflections, and begin
defcribing again, We have got a country
houfe for the remaining part of the hot wea-
ther upon the confines of the Milanefe do-
minions, where Switzerland firft begins to
bow her bleak head, and foften gradually in
the funfhine of Italian fertility. From every

walk

218 OBSERVATIONS IN A

walk and villa round this delightful fpot, one
fees an aflemblage of beauties rarely to be met
with: and there is a refemblance in it to the
Vale of Llwydd, which makes it ftill more in-
terefting to me. But we have obtained leave
to fpend a week of our deftined Villeggiatura
at the Borromzan palace, fituated in the mid-
die of Lago Maggiore, on the ifland fo truly
termed Ifola Bella; every ftep to which from
our villa at Varefe teems with new beauties,
and only wants the fea to render it, in point of
mere land{cape, fuperior to any thing we have
feen yet.

Our manner of living here is pofitively
like nothing real, and the fanciful defcription
of oriental magnificence, with Seged’s retire-
ment inthe Rambler to his palace on the Lake
Dambea, is all I ever read that could come
in competition with it: for here is one barge
full of friends from Milan, another carrying
a complete band of thirteen of the beft mufi-
cians in Italy, to amufe ourfelves and them
with concerts every evening upon the water
by moonlight, while the inhabitants of thefe
élyfian regions who live upon the banks, com .
down in crow ue to the fhores glad to receive

additional

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 219

additional delight, where fatiety of pleafure
feems the fole evil to be dreaded.

It is well known that the wild mountains of
Savoy, the rich plains of Lombardy, the verdant
paftures of Piedmont, and the pointed Alps
of Switzerland, form the limits of Lago Mag-
giore: where, upon a naked rock, torn I
truft from fome furrounding hill, or happily
thrown up in the middle of the water by a fub-
terranean volcano, the Count Borromzxo, in the
year 161 3, began to carry earth ; and lay out a
pretty garden, which from that day has been per-
petually improving, tillan appearance of eaftern
grandeur which it now wears, is rendered ftill
more charming by all the ftudied elegance of
art, and the conveniencies of common life.
The palace is conftruéted as if to realife John-
f{on’s ideas in his Prince of Abyffinia: the
garden confifts of ten terraces; the walls of
which are completely covered with orange,
Temon, and cedrati trees, whofe glowing co-
lours and whofe fragrant fcent are eafily dif
cerned at a confiderable diftance, and the per-
fume particularly often reaches as far as to the
oppofite fhore: nor are ftandards of the fame
plants wanting. I meafured one not the
largeft in the grove, which had been planted

fe) one

220 OBSERVATIONS IN A

one hundred and five years ; it was a full yard
and a quarter round. ‘There were forty-fix
of them fet near each other, and formed a de-
lightful fhade. The cedrati fruit grows as
large as a late romana melon with us in Eng-
land; and every thing one fees, and every
thing one hears, and every thing one taftes,
brings to one’s mind the fortunate iflands and
the golden age. Walks, woods, and terraces
within the ifland, and a profpe& of une-
qualled variety z7thout, make this a kind of
fairy habitation, fo like fomething one has
feen reprefented on theatres, that my female
companion cried out as we approached the
place, “ If we go any nearer now, I am fure
it will all vanifh into air.” There is folidity
enough however: alittle village confifting of
eighteen fifhermen’s houfes, and a pretty
church, with a dozen of well-grown poplars
before it, together with the palace and gar-
den, compofe the territory, which commodi-
oufly contains two hundred and fifty fouls,
as the circuit is fomewhat more than a mea-
fured mile and a half, but not two miles in
all :and we have cannons to guard our Calypfo-
like dominion, for which Count Borromzo
pays tribute'to the king of Sardinia; but has

himfelf

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ar

himfelf the right of raifing men upon the
main land, and of coining money at Macau,
a little town amid the hollows of thefe rocks,
which prefent their irregular fronts to the
lake in a manner furprifingly beautiful. He
has three other iflets on the fame water, for
change of amufement ; of which that named
la Superiore is covered with a hamlet, and
PIfola Madre with a wood full of game, gui-
nea fowl, and common poultry; a fummer-
houfe befide furnifhed with chintz, and con-
taining fo many apartments, that I am told
the uncle of the prefent poffeflor, having quar-
relled with his wife, and refolving in a
pet to leave the world, fhut himfelf up on
that little fpot of eafth, and never touched
the continent, as I may call 4t, for the laft
feventeen years of his life. Let me add, that
he had there his church and his chaplain,
three mufical profeffors in conftant pay, and
a pretty yatcht to row or fail, and fetch in
friends, phyficians, &c. from the main land.
His nephew has not the fame tafte at all,
feldom fpending more than a week, and that
only once a-year, among his iflands, which are
kept however quite in a princely ftyle: the
family creft, a unicorn, made in white mar-

ble,

222 OBSERVATIONS IN A

ble, and of coloffal greatnefs, proudly over-
looking ten broad terraces which rife in a py-
ramidal form from the water: each wall
richly covered with orange and lemon trees,
and every parapet concealed under thickly-
flowering fhrubs of inceflant variety, as if
every climate had been cuiled, to adorn this
tiny ijpot. More than a hundred beds are
made in the palace, which has likewife a grotto
floor of infinite ingenuity, and beautiful from
being happily contrafted againft the general
fplendour of the houfe itfelf I have feen
no fuch effort of what we call tafte fince I left
England, as thefe apartments on a level with
the lake exhibit, being all roofed and wain-
fcotted with well-difpofed fhellwork, and de-
corated with fountains in a lively and pleaf-
ing manner. The library up ftairs had ma-
ny curious books in it—a Camden’s Britannia
particularly, tranflated into Spanifh ; an Ara-
bic Bible worthy of the Bodleian colleGion,
and well-chofen volumes of natural hiftory to
a very ferious degree of expence. Painting
is not the firft or fecond boaft of Count Bor-
romxo, but there are fome tolerable land-
feapes by Tempefta, and three famous pic-
tures of Luca Giordano, well known in Lon-

don

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 227

don by the general diffufion of their prints,
reprefenting the Rape of the Sabines, the
Judgment of Paris, and the Triumph of Ga-
latea. Thefe large hiftory pieces adorn the
walls of the vaft room we dine in; where,
though we never fit down fewer than twenty
or twenty-five people to table, all feem loft
from the greatnefs of its fize, till the concert
fills it in the evening.

It is the garden however more than the pa-
lace which deferves defcription. He who has
the care of it was born upon the ifland, and
never ftrayed further than four miles, he tells
me, from the borders of his mafter’s lake.
Sure he muft think the fall of man a fable:
be lives in Eden ftill. How much muft fuch
a fellow be confounded, could he be carried
blind-folded in the midft of winter te London
or to Paris! and fet down in Fleet-ftreet or
Rue St. Honoré! That he underftands his
bufinefs fo as to need no tuition from the in-
habitants of either city, may be feen bya fig-
tree which I found here ingrafted on a lemon ;
both bear fruit at the fame moment, whilft a
vine curls up the ftem of the lemon-tree,
dangling her grapes in that delicious com~
Beoy with apparent fatisfaGtion to herfelf.

Another

a24 OBSERVATIONS IN &

Another inoculation of a mofs-rofe upon ar
orange, and a third of a carnation upon ace-
drati tree, gave me new knowledge of what
the gardener’s art, aided by a happy climate,
could perform. But when rowing round the
lake with our band of mulic yefterday, we
touched at a country feat upon the fide which
joins the Milanefe dominion, and I found
myfelf prefented with currants and goofeber-
ries by a kind family, who having made their
fortune in Amfterdam, had imbibed fome
Dutch ideas; my mind immediately felt her
elaftic force, and willingly confeffed that li-
berty, fecurity, and opulence alone give the
true relifh to productions either of art or na-
ture ; that freedom can make the currants of
Holland and golden pippins of Great Britain
{weeter than all the grapes of Italy ; while to
every manly underftanding fome fhare of the
government in a well-regulated ftate, with the
every-day comforts of common life made du=
rable and certain by the laws of a prof{perous
country, are at laft far preferable to fplendid
luxuries precarioufly enjoyed under the con-
{cioufnefs of their poflible privation when leaft
expected by the hand of defpotic power.

St.

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 228

St. Carlo Borromzo’s colofial ftatue in bronze
fixed up at the place of his nativity by the
fide of this beautiful water, fifteen miles from
I'Ifola Bella, was our next object of curiofity.
It is wonderfully well proportioned for its
prodigious magnitude, which, though often
meafured and well known, will never ceafe
to aftonifh travellers, while twelve men can
be eafily contained in his head only, as fome
yok our company had the curiofity to prove ;
but repented their frolic, as the metal heated
by fuch a fun became infupportable. Abate
Bianconi bid me remark that it was juft the
height of twelve men, each fix feet high;
that it is but juft once anda half lefs than
that ere€ted by Nero, which gives name to
the Roman Coloffeo; that it is to be feen
clearly at the diftance of twelve miles, though
placed to no advantage, as fituation has been
facrificed to the greater propriety of fetting it
up upon the place where he was actually
born, whofe memory they hold, and juftly, in
fuch perfe& veneration, I returned home per-.
fuaded that the cardinal’s drefs, though an unfa- |
.vourable one to pictures, is very happily adapt-
ed to a coloffal ftatue, as the three cloaks or

Vor. Il. Q- petti-

2.26 OBSERVATIONS IN &A

petticoats made a fort of ftep-ladder drapery
which takes off exceedingly from the offence
that is given by too long lines to the eye.

We returned to our enchanted palace with
mufic playing by our fide: I never faw a
party of pleafure carried on fo happily. The
weather was fingularly bright and clear, the
moon at full, the French-horns breaking the
filence of the night, invited echo to anfwer
them. The nine days (and we enjoyed feven-
teen or eighteen hours out of every twenty-
four) feemed nine minutes. When we came
home to our country-houfe in the Varefotto,
verfes and fonnets faluted our arrival, and
congratulated our wedding-day.

The Madonna del Monte was the next
fhow which called us abroad; it is within a
few miles of our prefent fweet habitation, is
celebrated for its profpect, and is indeed a
very aftonifhing fpot of ground, exhibiting at
one view the three cities of Turin, Milan, and
Genoa; and leading the eye {till forward into
the South of France. ‘The lakes, which to
thofe who go o’pleafuring upon them, feem
like feas, and very like the mouth of our river
Dart, where fhe difgorges her elegantly-or-
mamented ftream into the harbour at King!

weare,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 429
Weare, here afford too little water in propor=
tion, though five in number, and the largeft
fifty milesround. I fearcely ever faw fo much
land within the eye from any place. That
the road fhould be adorned with chapels up
the mountain is lefs ftrange: there is achurch
dedicated to the Virgin at top. We have
one here in Italy in every diftri€t almoft, as
the rage of wor/bipping on high places, fo ex=
prefsly and repeatedly forbidden in fcripturey
has lafted furprifingly in the world. Every
refting-place is marked, and decorated with
ftatues cut in wood, and painted to imitate
human life with very extraordinary {kills
They are capital performances of their kinds
and moft refemble, but I think excel, Mrs*
Wright’s fineft figures in wax. A convent
of nuns, fituated on the fummit of the hill,
where thefe chapels end in an exceeding pretty
church, entertained our large party with the
moft hofpitable kindnefs: gave us a hand-
fome dinner and delicious deflert. We di-
verted the ladies with a little concert in ré-
turn, and pafled a truly delightful day.
All the environs of this Vare/oito are very
charmingly varied with mountains, lakes, and
cultivated life; the only fault in our profpect

Q2 is

228 OBSERVATIONS IN A’

is the want of water. Had I told my com-=
panions of yefterday perhaps, that the view
from Madonna del Monie reminded me of
Chirk Caftle Hill in North Wales, they would
have laughed ; yet from that extraordinar y {pot
are to be diftinatly feen feveral fertile counties,
with many great, and many {mall towns, and
a moft extenfive land{cape, watered by the
large and navigable rivers Severn and Dee,
roughened by the mountains of Merioneth-
fhire, and bounded by the Irifh fea: I think
that view has fcarce its equalany where; and,
if any where, it is here in the vicinity of Va-
refe, where many gay villas interfperfed con-
tribute to variegate and enliven a fcene highly
finifhed by the hand of Nature, and want-

ing little addition from her attendant 47¢. »
Of the noblemen’s feats in the neighbour-
hood it may indeed be remarked, that how-
ever {pacious the houfe, and however fplendid
the furniture may prove upon examination,
however pompous the garden may be to the
firft glance, and the terraces however magni-
ficent,—{piders are feldom excluded from the
manfion, or weeds from the pleafure-ground
-of the poffeflor. A climate fo warm would
afford

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 229

afford fome excufe for this naftinefs, could
one obferve the inhabitants were difcompofed
at fuch an effe& from a good caufe, or if one
could flatter one’s felf that they themfelves
were hurt at it; but when they gravely dif-
play an embroidered bed or counterpane wor-
thy of Arachne’s fingers before her metamor-
phofis, covered over by her prefent labours,
who can forbear laughing ?—~The gardener in
two minutes arriving to affift you up flopes,
all flourifhing with cat’s-tail and poppy;
while your friends cry,—*“ Here, this is nature!
is it not2 pure nature!—Tutto naturale fi,
fecondo Vufo Inglefe*.”

Well! we have really pafled a prodigioufly
gay villegiatura here in this charming coun-
try, where the {nowy cap of the gros St. Ber-
nard cools the air, though at fo great a dif-
tance; and we have the pleafure of feeing
Switzerland, without the pain of feeling its
cold, or the fatigue of climbing its g/acieres:
the Alps of the Grifons rife up like a fortifi-
cation behind us; the fun glows hot in our
rich and fertile valleys, and throws up every
vegetable produ@ion with all the poignant

* All fo natural and pretty,—quite in the Englith ityle,

0 Be flavour

230 OBSERVATIONS IN A

flavour that Summer can beftow; nor is fhade
wanting from the walnut and large chefnut
trees, under which we often dine, and fing,
and play at ¢arocco, and hear the horns and
clarinets, while fipping our ice or fwallow-
ing our lemonade. The cica/a now feels the
genial influence of that heat the requires, but
her voice here is weak, compared to the
powers fhe difplayed fo much to our difturb-
ance in Tufcany; and the Jucciola has loft
much of her {cintillant beauty, but the darts
up and down the hedges now and then.
Here is an emerald-coloured butterfly, whofe
name I know not, plays. over the lakes and
flanding pools, in a very pleafing abundance;
the moft exquifitely-tinted ephemera frolic
before one all day long; and Antiope flutters
in every parterre, and fhares the garden {weets
with a pale primrofe-coloured creature of her
own kind, whofe wings are edged with
brown, and, if I can remember right, bears
the name of hyale. But we are not yet paft
the refidence of fcorpions, which certainly
do commit fuicide when provoked beyond all
endurance; a ftory I had always heard, but
never gave much credit to,
ser But

JOURNEY THROUH ITALY. 231

But I am difturbed from writing my book
by the good-humoured gaiety of our cheerful
friends, with whom we never fit down fewer
than fourteen or fifteen to table I think, and
furely never rife from it without many a ge-
nuine burft of honeft merriment undifguifed
by affectation, unfettered by reftraint. Our
gentlemen make improvi/o rhymes, and cut
comical faces; go out to the field after dinner,
and play at a fort of blindman’s buff, which
they call breaking the pan; nor do the low
ones in company arrange their minds as I fee
in compliment to the high ones, but tell their
opinions with a freedom I little expeéted tc
find: mixed fociety is very rare among them,
almoft unknown it feems; but when they do
mix at a country place like this, the great are
kind, to do them juftice, and the little not fer-
vile. They are wife indeed in making fociety
eafy to them, for no human being fuffers fo-
litude fo ill as does an Italian. An Englifh lady
once made me obferve, that a cat never purs
when fhe is alone, let her have what meat and
warmth fhe will; I think thefe focial-{pirited
Milanefe are like her, for they can hardly
believe that there is exifting a perfon, who

Q4 would

232 OBSERVATIONS IN A

would not willingly prefer any company to
none: when we were at the iflands three

weeks ago,— A charming place,” fays one

of our companions,—* Cio ¢ con un mondo
@’amici cofi*.’— “But with one’s own family,
methinks,” faid I, “ and a good library of
books, and this fweet lake to bathe in :’—
“ OQ!” cried they allat once, “ Dio ne liberi t+.”
—This is national character.

Why there are no birds of the watery kind,
coots, wild ducks, cargeefe, upon thefe lakes,
nobody informs me: I have been often told
that of Geneva {warms with them, and it is
but a very few miles off: our people though
have little care to afcertain fuch matters, and
no defire at all to inveftigate effects and caufes;
thofe who ftudy among them, ftudy claffic
authors and learn rhetoric; poetry too is by

.no means uncultivated at Milan, where the

Abate Parini’s fatires are admirable, and fo
efteemed by thofe who themfelves know very
well how to write, and how to judge: com-
mon philofophy (la phyfique, as the French
call it), geography, aftronomy, chymiftry, are

* That is, with a heap of friends about one in this
manner.
+ Oh! God keep one from that.
oddly

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 233

oddly left behind fomehow; and it is to their
ignorance of thefe matters that lam apt to
impute Italian credulity, to which every
wonder is welcome.

We have now pafied one day in Switzer-
land however, rowing to the little town Lu-
gano over its pretty lake. ‘The mountains at |
the end are a neat miniature of Vefuvius,
Somma, &c.; and the fituation altogether
looks as a picture of Naples would look, if
painted by Brughuel ; but not fo full of figures.
A fancifultravellertoo might betempted to think
he could difcern fome ftreaks of liberty in the
manners of the people, if it were but in the
inn-keeper at whofe houfe we dined ; this
may however be merely my own prejudice,
and fomebody told me it was fo.

We were fhewn on one fide the water as
we went acrofs, a {mall place called Campioni,
which is fewdo Imperiale, and governed by the
Padre Abate of a neighbouring convent, who
has power even over the lives of his fubjects
for fix years; at the expiration of which term
another defpot of the day is chofen—appointed
T fhould have faid; and the'laft returns to his
original ftate, amenable however for any very
fhocking thing he may have done during the

_courfe

234 OBSERVATIONS IN A

courfe of his di¢tatorfhip; and no complaint
has been ever made yet of any fuch governor
fo circumftanced and appointed, whofe con-
duct is commonly but too mild and clement.
This I thought worth remarking, as confo-
latory to one’s feelings.

Lugano meantime {corns abfolute autho-
tity: our Cicerone there, in reply to the
queftion afked in Italy three times a-day I
believe—Che Principe fa qui la fua refidenza*?
—replied, that they were plagued with no
Principi at all, while the thirteen Cantons
protected all their fubjeéts; and though, as
the man exprefled it, only half of them were
Chriftians, and the other half Proteffants; no
church or convent had ever wanted refpect ;
while their town regularly received a monthly
governor from every canton, and was per-
fetly contented with this ambulatory domi-
nion. Here was the firft gallows I have feen
thefe two years. They have a pretty com-
merce too at Lugano for the fize of the place,
and the fhopkeepers fhew that officioufnefs
and attention feldom obferved in arbitrary
ftates, where

Content, the bane of induftry,

* What prince makes his refidence here?
é foon

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 235

foon leads people to negle& the trouble of
getting, for the pleafure of {pending their
money. One therefore fees the inhabitants of
Italian cities for the moft part merry and
cheerful, or elfe pious and penitent; little at-
tentive to their fhops, but eafily difpofed to
loiter under their miftrefs’s window with a
guitar, or rove about the ftreets at night with
a pretty girl under their arm, finging as they
go, or {queaking with a droll accent, if it is
the time for mafquerades. Fraud, avarice,
ambition, are the vices of republican ftates
and a cold climate; idlenefs, fenfuality, and
revenge, are the weeds of a warm country
and monarchical governments. If thefe people
are not good, they at leaft wifh they were
better; they do not applaud their own conduc
when their paflions carry them too far; nor
rejoice, like old Moneytrap or Sir Giles Over-
reach, in their fuccefsful fins: but rather fay
with Racine’s hero, tranflated by Philips, that

Pyrrhus will ne’er approve his own injuftice,
Or form excufes while his heart condemns him,

They beat their bofomsat the feet of a crucifixin
the ftreet, with no more hypocrify than they beat
a tam=

236 OBSERVATIONS IN A

a tambourine there; perhaps with no more
effet neither, if no alteration of behaviour fuc-
ceeds their contrition: yet when an Englifh-
man (who is probably more afhamed of re-
penting than of finning) accufes them of falfe
pretenfions to pious fervour, he wrongs them,
and would do well to repent himfelf,

But a natural curiofity feen at Milan this
16th day of Auguft 1786, leads my mind
into another channel, I went to wait upon
and thank the lady, or the relations of the
lady, who lent us her houfe at Varefe, and
make our proper acknowledgments; and at
that vifit faw fomething very uncommon
furely : though I remember Doétor Johnfon
ance faid, that nobody had ever feen a very
ftrange thing; and challenged the company
(about feventeen people, myfelf among them)
to produce a ftrange thing ;—but I had not
then feen Avvocato B—, a la wyerhere at
Milan, and a man refpected in his profeffion,
who aétually chews the cud like an ox;
which he did at my requeft, and in my pre-
fence; he is apparently much like another tall
ftout man, but has many extraordinary pro-

perties, being eminent for ftrength, and pof-
6 feffing

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 277

fefling a fet of ribs and fternum very furprif-
ing, and worthy the attention of anatomifts :
his body, upon the flighteft touch, even
through all his clothes, throws out electric
fparks ; he can reject his meals from his fto-
mach at pleafure, and did abfolutely in the
courfe of two hours, the only two I ever paffed
in his company, go through, to oblige me,
the whole operation of eating, mafticating,
{wallowing, and returning by the mouth, a
large piece of bread and a peach, With all
this conviction, nothing more was wanting 5
but I obtained befide, the confirmation of com=
mon friends, who were willing likewife to
bear teftimony of this ftrange accidental va-
riety. What I hear of his character is, that
he is a low-fpirited, nervous man; and I fup-
pofe his ruminating moments are {pent in
lamenting the fingularities of his frame :—be
this how it will, we have now no time to
think any more of them, as we are packing
up fora trip to Bergamo, a city I have not
yet feen.

238 OBSERVATIONS IN A

BERGAMO

Ts built up a fteep hill, like Lanfdown
road at Bath; the buildings not fo regular ;
the profpec not inferior, but of a different
kind, refembling that one fees from Wrotham
hill in Kent, but richer, and prefenting a
variety beyond credibility, when it is pre-
mifed that fearce any water can be feen, and
that the plains of Lombardy are low and flat :
within the eye however one may count all
the original bleflings beftowed on human-
kind,—corn, wine, oil, and fruit ;—the in-
clofures being fmall too, and the trees soujfu,
as the French call it. No parterre was ever
moré beautifuly difpofed than are the fields
furveyed from the fummit of the hill, where
ftands the Marquis’s palace elegantly fhel-
tered by a ftill higher rifing ground behind
it, and commanding from every window of
its ftately front a view of prodigious extent
and almoft unmatched beauty: as the diver-
fification of colouring reminds one of nothing

but

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 239

but the fine pavement at the Roman Pan-
theon, fo curioufly interfe@ed are the patches
of grafs and grain, flax and vines, arable and
tilth, in this happy difpofition of earth and
its moft valuable produats; while not a hedge
fails to afford perfume that fills the very air
with fragrance, from the {weet jeflamine that,
twifting through it, lends a weak fupport to
the wild grapes, which, dangling in clufters,
invite ten thoufand birds of every European
fpecies I believe below the fize of a pigeon.
Nor is the taking of thefe creatures by the
yoccole to be left out from among the amufe-
ments of Brefcian and Bergamafc nobility ;
nor is the eating of them when taken to be
defpifed: beccajicos and ortolans are here in
high perfection; and it was from thefe
northern diftricts of Italy I truft that Vitellius,
and all the claflic gluttons of antiquity, got
their curious difhes of finging-bird pye, &c.
The rich fcent of melons at every cottage door
is another delicious proof of es climate’s. fer-
tility and opulence,—

Where every fenfe is loft in every joy, _
as Hughes expreffes it; and where, in the de-

lightful villa of our highly accomplifhed ac-
13 quaintance

240 OBSERVATIONS IN A

quaintance the Marquis of Aracieli, we have pafl-
ed ten days in all the pleafures which wit could
invent, money purchafe, or friendthip beftow.
The laft nobleman who refided here, father to
the prefent lord, was cavalier fervente to the im-
mortal Clelia Borromzo, whofe virtues and
varieties of excellence would fill a volume;
nor can there be a f{tronger proof of her un-
common, almoft unequalled merit, than the
Iong-continued efteem of the famous Vallif-
nieri, whofe writings on natural hiftory, par-
ticularly infects, are valued for their learning,
as their author was refpected for his birth and
talents. Letters from him are ftill preferved
in the family by Marchefe Aracieli, and breathe
admiration of the conduat, beauty, and exten-
five knowledge pofleffed by this worthy de-
f{cendant of the Borromzan houfe; to whofe
incomparable qualities his father’s fteady at-
tachment bore the trueft teftimony, while the
fon ftill fpeaks of her death with tears, and
delights in nothing more than in paying juft
tribute to her memory. He fhewed me this
pretty diftich in her praife, made improvifo
by the celebrated philofopher Vallifnieri :

Contemptrix

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 248

Contemptrix fexus, omnifcia Clelia fexum,.
Illuftrat ftudio, moribus, arte metro *.

The Italians are exceedingly happy in the
power of making verfes improvifo, either in
their o/d or their new language: we were
{peaking the other day of the famous epigram
in Aufonius ;

Infelix Dido, nulli bene nupta marito,
Hoc moriente fugis, hoc fugiente peris +.

Our equally noble and ingenious mafter of the
houfe rendered it in Italian thus immediately :

Mifera Dido! fra i nuziali ardori,
L’un muore e fuggi—laltro fuggi e mori.

This is more compreffed and clever than that

of Guarini bim/e/f 1 think,

Oh fortunata Dido!

Mal fornita d’amante e di marito,
Ti fu quel traditor, laltro tradito ;
Mori l'fino e fugeitti,

Fuggi Valtro e morifti,

* Her ftudies, manners, arts, to all proclaim
Fair Clelia’s glory, and her fex’s fhame.

+ Two lords in vain unlucky Dido tries ;
One dead, fhe flies the land ; one fled—the dies.

Vou. I. RS Though

242 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Though this latter has been preferved with
many deferved eulogiums from Crefcembini,
and likewife by Mr. de Chevreau.

Could I clear my head of prejudice for fuch
talents as I find here, and my heart of partial
regard, which is in reality but grateful friend-
fhip, juftly due from me for fo many favours
received ; could I forget that we are now once
more in the ftate of Venice, where every thing
affumes an air of cheerfulnefs unknown to
other places, | might perhaps perceive that the
fair at Bergamo differs little from a fair in
England, except that thefe cattle are whiter
and ours larger. How a feore of good ewes
now 2 as Mafter Shallow fays; but I really
did afk the price of a pair of good flrong
oxen for work, and heard it was ten zecchines ;
about half the price given at Blackwater, but
ours are {touter, and capable of rougher fervice.
It is ftrange to me where thefe creatures are
kept all the reft of the year, for except at fair
time one very feldom fees them, unlefs in
actual employment of carting, ploughing, Cc.
_ Nothing is fo little animated by the fight of:
living creatures as an Italian profpeé&t. No
fheep upon their hills, no cattle grazing in theiz
meadows, no water-fowl, fwans, ducks, &c.

upon

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 243

upon their lakes; and when you leave Lom-
bardy, no birds flying in the air, fave only from
time to time betwixt Florence and Bologna, a
folitary kite foaring over the furly Appenines,
and breaking the immenfe void which fatigues
the eye; a ragged lad or wench too now and
then leading a lean cow to pick among the
hedges, has a melancholy appearance, the more
fo as it is always faft held by a ftring, and
ftruggles in vain to get loofe. Thefe however
are only confequences of luxuriant plenty, for
where the farmer makes four harvefts of his
grafs, and every other {peck of ground is pro-
fitably covered with grain, vines, &c. all poffi-
bility of open pafturage is precluded. Horfes
too, fo ornamental in an Englifh landfcape,
will never be feen loofe in an Italian one, as
they are all chevaux entiers, and cannot be
trufted in troops together as ours are, even
if there was ground uninclofed for them
to graze on, like the common lands in Great
Britain. A nobleman’s park is another obje&
never to be feen or expected ina country,
where people would really be deferving much
blame did they retain in their hands for mere
amufement ten or twelve miles circuit of earth,
capable to produce two or three thoufand

ey pounds

244 OBSERVATIONS IN A

.pounds a-year profit to their families, befide

making many tenants rich and happy in the
mean time. I will confefs, however, that the
abfence of all thefe agrémens gives a flatnefs
and uniformity to the views which we cannot
complain of in England; but when Italians
confider the caufe, they will have reafon to be
fatisfied with the effect, efpecially while vege-
table nature flourifhes in full perfeGtion, while
every ftep crufhesout perfume from thetrodden
herbs, and thofe in the hedges difpenfe with
delightful liberality a fragrance that enchants
one. Hops and pyracantha cover the fides

of every cottage ; and the {cent of truffles at-

tracts, and the odour of melons gratifies one’s
nerves, when driving among the habitations
of fertile Lombardy.

The old church here of mingled Gothic
and Grecian architeCture pleafed me exceed-
ingly, it fends one back to old times fo, and
fhews one the progrefs of barbari/i, rapid and
gigantic in its ftrides, to overturn, confound,
and deftroy what tafte was left in the world '
at the moment of its ov/et. Here is a picture
of the Ifraelites paffing over the Red Sea,
which Luca Giordano, contrary to his ufual
cuftom, feems to have taken pains with, a

rarity

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 245

rarity of courfe; and here are fome fingle
figures of the prophets, heroes, and judges of
the Old Teftament, painted with prodigious
{fpirit indeed, by Ciro Ferri. That which
~ ftruck me as moft capital, was Gideon wring=
ing the dew out of the fleece, full of character
and glowing with expreffion.

The theatre has fallen down, but they are
building it up again with a nicety of propor-
tion that will enfure it from falling any more,
Italians cannot live without a theatre; they
have ereCted a temporary one to ferve during
the fair time, and even that is beautiful. The
Terzetto of charming Guglielmi was fung laft
night; I liked it ftill better than when we
heard it performed by fingers of more efta-
blifhed reputation at St. Carlo; but then I
like every thing at Bergamo, till it comes to
the thunder ftorms, which are far more in-
noxious here than at Naples or in Tufcany.

We could contemplate eletricity from this
fine hill yefterday with great compofure, being
amufed with her caprices and not endangered
by her anger. There has however been a
fierce tempeft in the neighbourhood, which
has greatly lowered the fpirits of the farmer ;
and we have been told another tale, that lowers

R 3 ming

2.46 OBSERVATIONS IN A

mine much more as an Englifhwoman, becaufe
the people of this town complain of ftrange
failure in their accuftomed orders for filk from
England, and the foreigners make difgraceful
conjectures about our commerce, in confe-
quence of that failure.

Here is a report prevailing too, of King
George III. being affaffinated, which, though
we all know to be falfe, fails not to produce
much unpleafing talk. Were the Londoners
aware of the diffufion of their newfpapers, and
the ftrange ideas taken up by foreigners about
things which pafs by ws like a day dream, |
think more caution would be ufed, and cha-
racters lefs lightly hung up to infamy or ridi-
cule, on which thofe very prints mean not to
beftow fo lafting or fevere a punifhment, as
their ill word produces at a diftance from
home, whither the contradiction often mifles
though the report arrives, and mifchief, origi-
nally little intended, becomes the fatal confe-
quence of a joke. But it is time to return ta

MILAN,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 247

Vitel gilt aeN

WueENCcE I! went for my very firft airing
to Cafa Simonetti, in fearch of the echo fo
celebrated by my country-folks and fellow-
travellers, but did not find all that has been
faid of it ftriétly true. It certainly does re-
peat a fingle found more than feventy times,
but has no power to give back by reverbera-
tion a whole fentence. I have met too with
another petty mortification; having been
taught by Cave to expect, that in our Am-
brofian library here at Milan, there was'a
MS. of Boethius preferved relative to his con-
demnation, and confefling his defign of fub-
verting the Gothic government in Lombardy.
I therefore prevailed on Canonico Palazzi, a
learned old ecclefiaftic, to go with me and beg
a fight of it. The prefect politely promifed
indulgence, but referred me to a future day ;
and when we returned again at the time ap-
pointed, fhewed me only Pere Mabillon’s book,
in which we read that it is to be found no

Ra where

248 OBSERVATIONS IN A

where but at Florence, in the library of Lo-
renzo de Medicis. We were however fhewn
fome curiofities to compenfate our trouble, par-
ticularly the fkeleton of the lady mentioned by
Dr. Moore and Lady Millar with fome con-
tempt. ‘This is the copy of her infcription ;

ZGROTANTIUM
SANITATI
MORTUORUM
INSPECTIONE
VIVENTES
PROSPICERE
POSSINT
HUNC
SKEAETON
P,

A MS. of the Confolations of Philofophy,
very finely written in the tenth century, and
kept in elegant prefervation ;—a private com-
mon-place of Leonardo da Vinci never fhewn,
full of private memoirs, caricaturas, hints for
pictures, fketches, remarks, &c.; it is inva-
luable. But there is another treafure in this
town, the prefect tells me, by the fame ini-
mitable mafter, no other than an alphabet,
pater nofter, &c. written out by himfelf for
the ufe of his own little babies, and ornament-

ed

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 249

ed with vignettes, &c. to tempt them to ftudy
it. I fhall not fee it however, as Conte Tri-
vulci is out of town, to whom it belongs. I
have not neglected to go fee the monument
erected to one of his family, with the famous
infcription,

Hic quiefcit qui nunquam quievit;

preferved by father Bouhours. The fame
day fhewed me the remains of a temple to
Hercules, with many of the fine old pillars
fill ftanding. They are foon to be taken
down we hear for the purpofe of widening
the ftreet, as Carfax was at Oxford.

My bunger after a journey to Pavia is much
abated ; fince profeflor Villa, whofe erudition
is well known, and whofe works do him fo
much honour, informed me that the infcrip-
tion faid by Pere Mabillon ftill to fubfift in
praife of Boethius, is long fince perifhed by
time; nor do they now fhew the brick tower
in which it is faid he was confined while he
wrote his Confolations of Philofophy: for the
tower is fallen to the ground, and fo is the
report, every body being now perfuaded that
they were compofed in a ftrong place then
ftanding upon the fpot called Calventianus

A Ager,

250 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Ager, from the name of a noble houfe to
which it had belonged for ages, and which I
am told Cicero mentions as a family half
Placentian, half Milaneze. The field ftill
goes by the name of 1/ Campo Calvenziano ;
but, as it now belongs to people carelefs of
remote events, however interefting to litera-
ture, is not adorned by any obelifk, or other
mark, to denote its paft importance, in hav-
ing been once the fcene of fufferings glo-
rioufly endured by the moft zealous chrift-
jan, the moft fteady patriot, and the moft
refined philofopher of the age in which he
lived.

I have feen a fine MS. of the Confolations
copied in the tenth century, not only legible
but beautiful; and I have been affured that
the hymns written by his firft wife Elpis,
who, though fhe brought him no children,
as Bertius fays, was yet jida curarum, et ftu-
diorum focia*, are ftill fung in the Romifh
churches at Brefcia and Bergamo, fomewhat
altered from the ftate we find them in at the
end of Cominus’s edition of the Confolations.

Tradition too, I find, agrees with Proco-
pius in telling that this widow of Boethius,

* Faithful to his cares, and companionable in his ftudies.

Rufticiana,

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 251

Rufticiana, daughter of Symmachus, fpent all
the little money fhe had left in hiring people
to throw down in the night all the ftatues fet up
in Rome to the honour of Theodoric, who had
fentenced her hufband to a death fo dreadful,
that it gave occafion to many fabulous tales
reported by Martin Rota as miraculous
truths. His bones, gathered up as relics by
Otho HI. were placed in a chapel dedicated
to St. Auftin in St. Peter's church at Pavia
four hundred and feventy-two years after his
death, with an epitaph preferved by Pere
Mabillon, but now no longer legible.

We are now cutting hay here for the laft
time this faafon, and all the environs {mell
like fpring on this 15th September 1786.
The autumnal tint, however, falls faft upon
the trees, which are already rich with a deep
yellow hue. A wintery feel upon the atmo-
fphere early in a morning, heavy fogs about
noon, and a hollow wind towards the ap-
proach of night, make it look like the very
laft week of OGober in England, and warn
us that fummer is going. The fame circum-
ftances prompt me, who am about to forfake
this her favourite region, to provide furs,
flannels, &c. for the pafling of thofe Alps

which

252 OBSERVATIONS IN A

which look fo formidable when covered with
fnow even at their prefent diftance. Our
fwallows are calling their. clamorous council
round me while I write; but the butterflies
fill flutter about in the middle of the day,
and grapes are growing more wholefome as
with us when the mornings begin to be
frofty. Our deferts, however, do not remind
us of Tufcany: the cherries here are not
particularly fine, and the peaches all part
from the ftone—miferable things! an Englith
gardener would not fend them to table: the
figs too were infinitely finer at Leghorn, and
nectarines have I never feen at all.

Well, here is the opera begun again 3
fome merry wag, Abate Cafti I think, has
accommodated and adapted the old ftory of
king Theodore to put in ridicule the prefent
king of Sweden, who is hated of the emperor
for fome political reafons I forget what, and
he of courfe patronifes the jefter. Our ho-
neft Lombards, however, take no delight in
mimicry, and feel more difguft than plea-
fure when fimplicity is infulted, or diftrefs
made more corrofive by the bitternefs of a
{cofiing fpirit. I have tried to fee whether
they would laugh at any oddity in their

neigh-

_JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 453

neighbour’s manner, but never could catch
any, except perhaps now and then a fly Ro+
man who had a liking for it. “ I fee nothing
abfurd about the man,” fays one gentleman 3
* every body may have fome peculiarity, and
moft people have; but fuch things make me
no fport: let us, when we have a mind to
laugh, go and laugh at Punchinello.”—From
fuch critics, therefore, the king of Sweden is
fafe enough, as they have not yet acquired the
tafte of hunting down royalty, and crowing
with infantine malice, when pofleffed of the
mean hope that they are able to pincha noble
heart. This old-fafhioned country, which
detefts the fight of fuffering majefty, hiffes off
its theatre a performance calculated to divert
them at the expence of a fovereign prince,
whofe character is clear from blame, and
whofe perfonal weakneffes are protected by
his birth and merit; while it is to his open,
free, and politely generous behaviour alone, they
owe the knowledge that he das fuch foibles.
Paifiello, therefore, cannot drive it down
by his beft mufic, though the poor king of
Sweden is a Lutheran too, and if any thing
would make them hate him, ¢hat would.

One

254 OBSERVATIONS IN A

One vice, however, fometimes prevents the
commiffion of another, and that fame pre-
vailing idea which prompts thefe prejudiced
Romanifts to conclude him doomed to lafting
torments who dares differ from them, though
in points of no real importance, infpires them
at the fame time with fuch compaffion for his
fuppofed ftate of predeftinated punifhment, that |
they rather incline to defend him from further
mifery, and kindly forbear to heap ridicule in
this world upon a perfon who is fure to fuf-
fer eternal damhation in the other.

How melancholy that people who poffefs
fuch hearts fhould have the head thus per-
verfely turned! I can attribute it but to one
caufe; their ftrange negle&t and forbearance
to read and ftudy God’s holy word: for nota
very few of them have I found who feem to
difbelieve the Old Teftament entirely, yet re-
main fteadily and ftrenuoufly attached to the
precedence their church claims over every
other; and who fhall wonder if fuch a com-
bination of bigotry with fcepticifm fhould
produce an evaporation of what little is left of
popery from the world, as emetics triturated
with opium are faid to produce a fudorific
powder which no earthly conftitutioncan refift?

I But

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 55

But the Spanifh grandee, who not only en-
tertained but aftonifhed us all one night with
his converfation at Quirini’s Cafino at Venice,
is arrived here at Milan, and plays upon the
violin. He challenged acquaintance with us
in the ftreet, half invited himfelf to our pri-
vate concert laft night, and did us the honour
to perform there, with the {kill of a profeffor,
the eager defire of a dilletante, and the tediouf-
nefs of a folitary ftudent; he continued to
amaze, delight, and fatigue us for four long
hours together. He is a man of prodigious
talents, arid replete with variety of knowledge.
A new dance has been tried at here too, but
was not well received, though it reprefents
the terrible ftory which, under Madame de
Genlis’ pen, had fuch uncommon fuccefs
among the reading world, and is called
La fepolta viva; but as the duchefs Gira-
falco, whofe misfortune it commemorates, is
ftill alive, the pantomime will probably be
fupprefled: for fhe has relations at Milan it
feems, and one lady diftinguifhed for elegance
of form, and charms of voice and manner,
told me yefterday with equal {weetnefs, fpirit,
and propriety, that though the king of Naples
fent his foldiers to free her aunt from that

horrible

|
|

566 OBSERVATIONS IN A

horrible dungeon where fhe had been nine
years confined, yet if her miferies were to
become the fubject of ftage reprefentation, fhe
could hardly be pronounced happy, ort
even at eafe. ‘Truth is, I would be loath to
fee the fpirit of producing every one’s private
affairs, true or falfe, before the public eye, {pread
into ‘bis country: No! let that humour be
confined to Great Britain, where the thoufand
real advantages refulting from living in a free
ftate, richly compenfate for the violations of
delicacy annexed to it; and where the laws
do protect, though the individuals infult one :
but bere, why the people would be miferable
indeed, if to the oppreflion which may any
hour be exercifed over them by their prince,
were likewife to be added the liberties taken
perpetually in London by one’s next door
neighbour, of tearing forth every tranfaction,
and publifhing even every conjecture to
one’s difadvantage.

With thefe refleQiions, and many others,
excited by gratitude to private friends, and
general admiration of a country fo juitly
efteemed, we fhall foon take our leave of
Milan, famed for her truly hofpitable difpofi-

tion; a temper of mind fometimes abufed by

travellers

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 257

travellers perhaps, whofe birth and preten-
fions are feldom or ever inquired into, whilft
no people are more careful of keeping their
rank inviolate by never converfing on equal
terms with a countryman or woman of their
own, who cannot produce a proper length of
anceftry.

I will not leave them though, without
another word or two about their language,
which, though it founded ftrangely coarfe
and broad to be fure, as we returned home
from Florence, Rome, and Venice, I felt
fincerely glad to hear again; and have fome
notion by theit way of pronouncing brcchiere,
a word ufed here to exprefs every thing that
holds water, that our gitcher was probably
derived froin it; and the Abate Divecchio, a
polite fcholar, and an uncommonly agreeable
companion, feemed to think fo too. His
knowledge of the Englith language, joined to
the fingular power he has over his own ele~
gant Tufcan tongue, made me torment him
with a variety of inquiries about thefe con-
fufing diale&ts, which leave me at laft little
chance to underftand any, whilft a child is
called bambino at biorence, putto at Venice,
Schiatto at Bergamo, and creatura at Rome ;

Vou. II. S and

238 ° OBSERVATIONS IN A

and at Milan they call a wench fof: an
apron is grembiule at Florence I think, tra-
verfa at Venice, bigarrol at Brefcia.and fome
other parts of Lombardy, /evale at Rome,
and at Milan /cozzd. A foreigner may well
be diftratted by varieties fo ftriking ; but the
turn and idiom differ ten times more ftill, and
IT love to hear our Milanefe call an oak robur
rather than guercia fomehow, and tell a lady
when drefled in white, that fhe is tutto im
albedine.

On Friday the 22d of September then we left
Milan, and I dropt a tear or two in remem-
brance of the many civilities fhewn by our
kind and partial companions. The Abate Bian-
coni made me wild to go to Drefden, and
enjoy the Correggios now moved from Mo-
dena to that gallery. I find he thinks the
old Romans pronounced Cicero and Cefar as
the moderns do, and many Englifh fcholars
are of the fame mind; but here are coins
dug up now out of the Veronefe mountain
with the word Carolus, {pelt Karrulus, upon
them quite plain; and Chriftus was {pelt
Kriflus in Vefpafian’s time it is certain, be-
caufe of the player’s monument at Rome.—
Dr. Johnfon, | remember, was always fteady

7 to

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 259

to that opinion; but it is time to leave all
this, and rejoice in my third arrival at gay,
cheerful, charming

Vir RON Al

Wuituer fome fweet leave-taking verfes
have followed us, written by the facetious
Abate Ravafi, a native of Rome, but for
many years an inhabitant of Milan. His
agreeable fonnet, every line ending with
tutto, being upon a fubject of general import-
ance, would ferve as a better fpecimen of his
abilities than lines dictated only by partial
friendfhip ;—but I hear that is already circu-
lated about the world, and printed in one of
our magazines; to them let him truft his
fame, they will pay my juft debts.

We have now feen this enchanting fpot in
fpring, fummer, and autumn; nor could
winter’s felf render it undelightful, while
uniting every charm, and gratifying every
fenfe. Greek and Roman antiquities falute one
at the gates; Gothic remains render each
place of worfhip venerable: Nature in her

Sey holi-

260 OBSERVATIONS IN A

holiday drefs decks the environs, and fociety
animates with intelle€tual fire the amiable in-
habitants. Oh! were I to live here long, E
fhould not only excufe, but applaud the Sca-
ligers for ftraining probability, and neglect-
ing higher praife, only to claim kindred with
the Scalas of Verona. Improvifation at this
place pleafes me far better than it did in Tuf-
cany. Our truly-learned Abate Lorenzi afto-
nifhes all who hear him, by repeating, not
Jfinging, a feries of admirably juft and well-
digefted thoughts, which he, and he alone,
pofleffes the power of arranging fuddenly as
if by magic, and methodically as if by ftudy, to
rhymes the moft melodious, and moft varied ;
while the Abbé Bertola, of the univerfity at
Pavia, gives one pleafure by the fame talent
$n a manner totally different, finging his un-
premeditated ftrains to the accompaniment of
a harpfichord, round which ftand a little cho-
rus of friends, who interpolate from time to
~ time two lines ofa well-known fong, to which
he pleafingly adapts his compolitions, and
goes on gracing the barren fubje&, and adorn-
ing it with every poflible decoration of wit,
and every defirable elegance of fentiment.

Detnre can furely furpals the happy promp-
LL titude

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 261

‘dtude of his expreffion, unlefs it is the bril-
liancy of his genius.

“We were in a large company laft night, where
a beautiful woman of quality came in drefl-
ed according to the prefent tafte, with a gauze
head-drefs, adjufted turbanwife, and a heron’s
feather ; the neck wholly bare. Abate Ber-
tola bid me look at her, and, recolle€ting him-
felfa moment, made this Epigram improvifo :

Volto e Crin hai di Sultana,
Perché mai mi vien difdetto,
Sodducente Muffulmana
Di gittarti il Fazzoletto 2

of which I can give no better imitation than
the following ;

While turban’d head and plumage high
A Sultanefs proclaims my Cloe ;
Thus tempted, tho’ no Turk, I’ll try
The handkerchief you fcorn—to throw ye.

This is however a weak fpecimen of his
powers, whofe charming fables have fo com=
pletely, in my mind, furpafled all that has
ever been written in that way fince La Fon-
taine. I am ftrongly tempted to give one
little ftory out of‘his pretty book.

S 3 Una

262

OBSERVATIONS IN A

Una lucertoletta

Diceva al cocodrillo, °
Oh quanto mi diletta

Di veder finalmente

Un della mia famiglia

Si grande e fi potente ! -
Ho fatto mille miglia
Per venirvi a vedere,
Mentretra noi fi ferba
Di voi memoria viva ;
Benche fuggiam tra l’erba
E il faffofo fentiero:

In fen perd non langue
L’onor del prifco fangue,
L’anfibio ré dormiva

A quefti complimenti,

‘Pur fugli ultimi accenti

Dal fonno fe rifcoffe

E dimand6 chi foffe ?
La parentela antica,

Il viaggio, la fatica,
Quella torno a dire,
Ed ei torne a dormire.

Lafcia 1 grandi ed 1 potenti,
A fognar per parenti ;

Puoi cortefi ftimarli

Se dormon mentre parli.

Walking full many a weary mile
The lizard met the crocodile ;

And

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 263

And thus began—how fat, how fair,
How finely guarded, Sir, youare!
_ ?Tis really charming thus to fee

One’s kindred in profperity.

I’ve travell’d far to find your coaft,
But fure the labour was not loft:
‘For you muft think we don’t forget
Our loving coufin now {fo great ;
And tho’ our humble habitations
Are fuch as fuit our flender ftations,
The honour of the lizard blood
Was never better underftood.

Th’ amphibious prince, who flept content,
Ne’er liftening to her compliment,

At this expreffion rais’d his head,
And—Pray who are you ? cooly faid ;

The little creature now renew’d

Her hiftory of toils fubdu’d,

Her zeal to fee her coufin’s face,

The glory of her ancient race;

But looking nearer, found my lord

Was faft afleep again—and {nor’d.

Ne’er prefs upona rich relation

Rais’d to the ranks of higher ftation ;
_ Or if you will difturb your coz,

Be happy that he does but doze.

But I will not be feduced by the pleafure of
praifing my fweet friends at Verona, to
lengthen this chapter with further panegyrics

S 4 upon

264 OBSERVATIONS IN A

upon a place I leave with the trueft tender-
nefs, and with the fincereft regret ; while the
correfpondence I hope long to maintain with
the charming Contefla Mofconi, muft com-
penfate all it can for the lofs of her agreeable
Coterie, where my moft delightful evenings
have been f{pent; where fo many topics of
Englifh literature have been difcuffed; where
Lorenzi read Taflo to us of an afternoon, Ber-
tola made verfes, and the cavalier Pindemonte
converfed; where the three Graces, as they
are called, joined their fweet voices to fing
when fatiety of pleafure made us change our
mode of being happy, and kept one from
withing ever to hear any thing elfe; while
countefs Carminati fung Bianchi’s duets with
the only tenor fit to accompany a voice fo
touching, and a tafte forefined. Verona! qui
te viderit, et non amarit, fays fome old
writer, I forget who, protinus amor perdi-
tiffimo ; is credo fe ipfum non amat*, Indeed
I never faw people live fo pleafingly together
as thefe do ; the women apparently delighting
in each other’s company, without mean rivalry,

%* Whoever fees thee without being fmitten with ex-
traordinary paftion, muft, I think, be incapable of loving
even himlelf,

Vs

JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 265

or envy of thofe accomplifhments which are
commonly beftowed by heaven with diverfity
enough for all to have their fhare. The
world furely affords room for every body’s
talents, would every body that pofleffed them
but think fo; and were malice and affeCtation
once completely banifhed from cultivated fo-
ciety, Verona might be found in many places
perhaps; fhe is now confined, [ think, ta
the {weet ftate of Venice,

ipa e Pa ope Ree pod Boas’

TRENT, INSPRUCK, MUNICK, anp
SALTZSBURG, To VIENNA.

HE Tyrolefe Alps are not as beautiful

as thofe of Savoy, though the river

that runs between them is wider too; but
that very circumftance takes from the horror
which conftitutes beauty in a rocky country,
while a navigable ftream and the paflage of
large floats convey ideas of commerce and fo-
cial life, leaving little room for the folitary
fancies produced, and the ftrokes of fublimity
indelibly impreffed, by the mountains of La

Haute Morienne. The fight of atown where
all

OBSERVATIONS, &c. 267

all the theological learning of Europe was
once concentred, affords however much ground
of mental amufement; while the fight of two
nations, not naturally congenial, living hap-
pily together, as the Germans and Italians here
do, is pleafing to all.

We faw the apartments of the Prince Bi-
fhop, but found few things worth remarking,
except that in the pictures of Carlo Loti there
is a fhade of the Flemith {chool to be difcerned,
which was pretty as we are now hard upon
the confines. Our fovereign here keeps his
little menagerie in a mighty elegant ftyle: the
animals poffefs an infulated rock, furrounded
by the Adige, and planted with every thing
that can pleafe them beft ; the wild, or more
properly the predatory creatures, are confin-
ed, but in very fpacious apartments; with
each a handfome . outlet for amufement :
while fuch as are granivorous rove at plea-
fure over their domain, to which their mafter
often comes in fummer to eat ice at a ban-
guetting houfe ereéted for him in the middle,
whence a profpeét of a peculiar nature is enjoy-
ed; great beauty, much variety, anda very
limited horizon, like fome of the views about
Bath.

At

268 OBSERVATIONS IN A

At the death of one prince another is chofen,
and government carried on as at Rome in mi-
niature. We ftaid here two nights and one
day, thought perpetually of Matlock and Ivy
Bridge, and faw fome rarities belonging to a
man who fhewed us a picture of our Saviour’s
circumeifion, and told us it was San Simeone,
a baby who having gone through many
ftrange operations and torments among fome
Jews who ftole him from his parents, as the
ftory goes here at Trent, they murdered him at.
laft, and he became a faint and a martyr, ta
whom much devotion is paid at this place,
though I fancy he was never heard of any
where elfe,

The river foon after we left Trent con-
tracted to a rapid and narrow torrent, fuch as
dafhes at the foot of the Alps in Savoy; the
rocks grew more pointed, and the profpects
gained in fublimity at every ftep ; though the
neatnefs of the culture, and quantity of vines,
with the variegated colouring of the woods,
continued to excite images more foft than
formidable, lefs folemn than lovely. The
barberry bufhes bind every mountain round
the middle as with a {fcarlet fafh, and when

we

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 269

we looked down upon them from a houfe
fituated as if in the place which the Frenchman
feemed to have a notion of, when he thought
the aerian travellers were gone au dieu ou les
vents fe forment, they looked wonderfully
pretty. The cleanlinefs and comfort with
which we are now lodged at every inn, evince
our diftance from France however, and even
from Italy, where low cielings, clean windows,
and warm rooms, are deemed pernicious to
health, and deftrudtive of true delight. Here
however we find ourfelves cruelly diftreffed
for want of language, and muft therefore
depend on our eyes only, not our ears, for
information concerning the golden houfe, or
more properly the golden roof, long known
to fubfift at Infpruck. The ftory, as well as
I can gather it, is this: That fome man was
reproached with fpending more than he could
afford, till fome of his neighbours cried out,
“ Why he'll roof his houfe with gold foon,
but who fhall pay the expence ?’— J will ;”
quoth the piqued German, and atually did
gild his tiles. My heart tells me however,
though my memory will not call up the par-
ticulars, that I have heard a tale very like this
before now; but one is always liftening to the

fame

470 OBSERVATIONS IN A

fame ftories I think: At Rome, when they
fhew a fine head lightly fketched by Michael
Angelo, they inform you how he left iton
Raphael’s wall, after the manner of Apelles
and Protogenes; it is called Tefta di Ciam-
bellaro, becaufe he came dif,uifed as a feller
of ciambelle, or little bifcuits, while Raphael’s
{cholars were painting at the Farnefini. At
Milan, when they point out to you the extra-
ordinary architeCture of the church déetto il
Giardino, the roof of which is fupported by
geometrical dependance of one part upon
another, without columns or piers, they tell
how the architet ran away the moment it
was finifhed, for fear its fudden fall might
difgrace him. This tale was very familiar to
me, I had heard it long ago related of a
Welch bridge; but it is better only fay what
is true.

This is a fweetly fituated town, and a rapid
ftream runs through it as at Trent; and it is
no fall comfort to find one’s felf once more
waited on by clean looking females, who
make your bed, {weep your room, &c. while
the pewters in the little neat kitchens, as one
paffes through, amaze me with their bright-

ne{s,

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 271

nefs, that I feel as if in a new world, it is /o
long fince I have feen any metal but gold un-
encrufted by naftinefs, and gold wi// not be
dirty.

The clumfy churches here are more vio-
lently crowded with ornaments than I have
found them yet; and for one crucifix or
Madonna to be met with on Italian roads,
here are at leaft forty ; an ill carved and worfe
painted figure of a bleeding Saviour, large as
life, meets one at every turn; and I feel glad
when the odd devotion of the inhabitants hangs
a clean fhirt or laced waiftcoat over it, or both.
Another cuftom they have wholly new to me,
that of keeping the real fkeletons of their old
nobles, or faints, or any one for whom they have
peculiar veneration, male or female, in a large
clean glafs box or cryftal cafe, placed horizon-~
tally, and drefled in fine fcarlet and gold robes,
the poor naked fkull crowned with a coronet,
and the feet peeping out below the petticoats.
Thefe melancholy objeéts adorn all their places
of worfhip, being fet on brackets by the wall
infide, and remind me ftrangely of our old
ballad of Death and the Lady ;

Fair lady, lay your coftly robes afide, &c.
No

292 OBSERVATIONS IN A

No body ever mentions that Infpruck ig
fubject to fires, and I wonder at it, as the roofs
are all wood cut tile-ways, and heavily penfile,
like our barns in England, for the fhow to
roll off the eafier.

Well! we are far removed indeed from
Italian architecture, Italian {culpture, and Ita=
lian manners; but here are twenty-eight old
kings, or keyfers, as our German friends call
them, large as life, and of good folid bronze,
eurioufly worked to imitate lace, embroidery,
&c. ftanding in two rows, very extraordinarily;
up one of their churches. I have not feen
more frowning vifages or finer dreffes fora
long time; and here is a warm feel as one
paffes by the houfes, even in the ftreet, from
the heat of the ftoves, which moft ingenioully
conceal from one’s view that moft cheerful of
all fights in cold weather, a good fire. This
feems a very unneceilary device, and the heated
porcelain is apt to make one’s head ache be-
fide; all for the fake of this cunning contri-
vance, to make one enjoy the eed of fire
without feeing the caufe.

The women that run about the town, mean
time, take the neareft way to be warm, wrap-

ping

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 273

ping themfelves up in cloth clothes, like fo —
many fifhermen at the mouth of the Humber,
and wear a fort of rug cap grofsly unbecom-
ing. But too great an attention to convenience
difgufts as furely as too little; and while a
Venetian wench apparently feeks only to cap-
tivate the contrary fex, thefe German girls
as plainly proclaim their refolution not to
facrifice a grain of perfonal comfort for the
pleafure of pleafing all the men alive.

How truly hateful are extremes of every
thing each day’s experience convinces ; from
fuperftition and infidelity, down to the Fribble
and the Brute, one’s heart abhors the fally of
reverfing wrong to look for right, which lives
enly in the middle way ; and Solomon, the
wifeft man of any age or nation, places the
fovereign good in mediocrity of every thing,
moral, political, and religious.

With this good axiom of xeguid nimis* in
our mouths and minds, we fhould not per-
haps have driven fo very hard; but a lefs
effort would have detained us longer from the
fineft object I almoft ever faw; the fun rifing
between fix and feven o’clock upon the plains
of Munich, and difcovering to our foothed

* Nothing too much.

Vou. II. 3 Nee fight

294 OBSERVATIONS IN A

fight a lovely champain country, fuch as might
be called a flat I fear, by thofe who were not
like us accuftomed to a hilly one; but after
four-and-twenty hours paffed among the Alps,
I feel fincerely rejoiced to quit the clouds and
get upon a level with human creatures, leaving
the goats and chamois to delight as they do
in bounding from rock to rock, with an agi-
lity that amazes one.

Our weather continuing particularly fine, it
was curious to watch one picturefque beauty
changing for another as we drove along; for no
fooner were the rich vineyards and {mall inclo-
fures left behind, than large pafture lands filled
with feeding or repofing cattle, cows, oxen,
horfes, fifty in a field perhaps, prefented to
our eyes an objec they had not contemplated
for two’ years before, and revived ideas of
England, which had long lain buried under
Italian fertility.

Inftead of lying down to reft, having eae
we had friends at the fame inn, we ran with
them to fee the picture gallery, more for the
fake of doing again what we had once done
before at Paris with the fame agreeable com-
pany, than with any hope of entertainment,

which

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 275

which however upon trial was found by no
means deficient. Had there been no more
than the glow of colouring which refults from
the fight of fo many Flemith piGurés at once,
it muft have flruck one forcibly; but the
murder of the Innocents by Rubens, a great
performance, gave me an opportunity of ob-
ferving the different ways by which that great
mafter, Guido Rheni, and Le Brun, lay hold
of the human heart. The difference does not
however appear to me infpired at all by what
we term national charaéter ; for the inhabit-
ants of Germany are reckoned flow to anger,
and of phlegmatic difpofitions, while a French-
man is accounted light and airy in his ideas,
an Italian fiery ‘and revengeful. Yet Rubens’s
principal figure follows the ruffian who has’
feized her child, and with a countenance at
once exciting and expreflive of horror, en-
deavours, and almoft arrives at tearing both
his eyes out. One actually fees the fellow
ftruggling between his efforts to hold the in-
fant faft, and yet rid himfelf of the mother,
while blood and anguifh apparently follow the
impreffion her nails are making in the ten-
dereft parts of his face. Guido, on the con-
» tyary, in one of the churches at Bologna, ex-
dt hibits

076 OBSERVATIONS IN A

hibits a beautiful young creature of no mean
rank, elegant in her affliction, and lovely in
her diftrefs, fitting with folded arms upon the
fore-ground, contemplating the cold corpfe
of her murdered baby; his nurfe wringing
her hands befide them, while crowds of dif-
tracted parents fill the perfpeQive, and the
executioners themfelves appear to pay unwil-
ling obedience to their inhuman king, who is
feen animating them himfelf from the top of
a diftant tower.—Le Brun mean time, with
more imagination and fublimity than either,
makes even brute animals feem fenfible, and
fhudder at a feene fo dreadful; while the very
horfes who fhould bear the cruel prince over
the theatre of his crimes, fnort and tremble,
and turning away with uncontrollable fury,
refufe by trampling in their blood to violate

fuch injured innocence !—Enough of this.
The patient German is feen in all they
fhew us, from the painting of Brughuel to the
mufic of Haydn. A friend here who {peaks
good Italian fhewed us a colleCtion of rarities,
among which was a picture formed of butter-
flies wings; and a fet of boxes one within
another, till my eyes were tired with trying to
difcern, and the patience of my companions
was

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 277

was wearied with counting them, when the
number pafled feventy-three: this amufement
has at leaft the grace of novelty to recommend
it. I had not formed to myfelf an idea of
fuch unmeaning, fuch taftelefs, yet truly ela-
borate nicety of workmanfhip, as may be
found in the Elector’s chapel, where every
relic repofes in fome frame, enamelled and
adorned with a minutenefs of attention and
delicacy of manual operation that aftonifhes,
The prodigious quantity of thefe gold or
ivory figures, finifhed fo as to require a man’s
whole life to each of them, are of immenfe
value in their way at leaft, and fill one’s mind
with a fort of petty and frivolous wonder to-
tally unexperienced till now, bringing to one’s
recollection every hour Pope’s famous line—

Lo! what huge heaps of littlenefs around !

The contraft between this chapel and Cap-
pella Borghefe never left my fancy for a mo-
ment: but if the coft of thefe curious trifles
caufed my continued furprife, how was that
furprife increafed by obferving the bed-
chamber of the Elector; where they told us
that no lefs than one hundred thoufand

3 pounds

278 OBSERVATIONS IN A

pounds fterling were buried under loads of
gold tiflue, red velvet, and old-fafhioned
carved work, without the merit even of an
attempt towards elegance or tafte?

Nimphenbourg palace and, gardens remind-
ed me of Englith gardening forty years age,
while—

Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother,
And half the platform juft reflects the other.

I do think I can recolle& going with my pa-
rents and friends to fee Lord Royfton’s feat at
Wreft, when we lived in Hertfordfhire, in
the year 17503 and it was juft fuch a place
as Nimphenbourg is at this day. Now for
fome juft praife: every thing is kept fo neat
here, fo clean, fo fweet, fo comfortably nice,
that it isa real pleafure fomehow either to
go out in this town or flay at home: the
public baths are delicious ; the private rooms
with boarded floors, all {wept, and brufhed,
and dufted, that not a cobweb can be {een in
Munich, except one kept for a rarity, with the
Virgin and Child worked in it, and wrought
to fuch an unrivalled pitch of delicate finenefs,
that till we held it up to the light no naked

eye

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 79

eye could difcern the figures it contained, till
a microfcope foon difcovered the fkill and
patience tequifite to its production;—great
pains indeed, and little effet! We have left
the country where things were exactly the
reverfe,—great effet, and little pains! But
it is the fame in every thing.

The women’s fcrupulous attention to keep
their perfons clear from dirt, makes their faces
look doubly fair; their complexions have
quite a luftre upon them, like fome of our
wenches in the Weft of England, whofe
tranfparent fkins fhew, by the motion of the
blood beneath, an illuminated countenance
that ftlands in the place of eye-language, and
betrays the fentiments of the innocent heart
with uncontrolable fincerity. Thefe girls
however will not be found to attract or retain
lovers, like an Italian, whofe black eyes and
white teeth (though their pofleflor thinks no
more of cleaning the laft-named beauty than
the firft) tell her mind clearly, and with little
pains again produce certain and ftrong effec.
Our {tiff gold-ftuff cap here too, as round, as
hard, and as heavy as an old Japan China
bafon, and not very unlike one, is by no

FS means |

280 OBSERVATIONS IN A

means favourable to the face, as it is clapped
clofe round the head, the hair combed all
fmooth out of fight, and a plaited border of
lace to it made firm with double-fprigged
wire; giving its wearer all the hardnefs and
prim look of a Quaker, without that idea of
fimplicity which in their drefs compenfates for
the abfence of every ornament.

The gentlemen’s maniere de sajufter is to
me equally ftriking: an old nobleman who
takes delight in fhewing us the glories of his
little court (where I have a notion he himfelf
holds fome honourable office) came to dine
with us yefterday in a drefled coat of fine,
clean, white broad-cloth, laced all down with
gold, and lined with crimfon fattin, of which
likewife, the waiftcoat was made, and laced
about with a narrower lace, but pretty broad
too; fo that I thought I faw the very coat my
father went in to the old king’s birth-day
five and thirty years ago. There is more
ftatelinefs too and ceremonious manners in the
converfation of this gentleman, and the friends
he introduced us to, than J have of late been
accuftomed to; and they fatigue one with
long, dry, uninterefting narratives. The inn-

keepers

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 281

keepers are honeft, but inflexible; the fer-
vants filent and fullen; the poftillions flow
and inattentive ; and every thing exhibits the
reverfe of what we have left behind.

The treafures of this little EleCtor are pro-
digious, his jewels fuperb; the Electrefs’s
pearls are fuperior in fize and regularity to
thofe at Loretto, but that diftinguifhed by the
namie of the “ Pearl of the Palatinate” is furely
incomparable, and, as fuch, always carried to
the eletion of a new Emperor, when each
brings his fineft poffeffion in his hand, like
the Princefs of Babylon’s wooers,—which was
perhaps meant by Voltaire as a joke upon the
cuftom. This pearl is about the bignefs and
fhape of a very fine filberd, the upper part or
cap of it jet black, fmooth and perfe@ly beau-
tiful ; it is unique in the known world,

Our Prince’s dinner here is announced by
the found of drums and trumpets, and he has
always a concert playing while he dines:
pomp is at this place indeed fo artfully fub-
ftituted inftead of general confequence, that
while one remains here one {fcarcely feels
aware how little any one but his own cour-
tiers can be thinking about the Elector of

Bavaria ;

282 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Bavaria ; but ceremony is of moft ufe where
there is leaft importance, and glitter beft hides
the want of folidity.

From Munich to Saltzbourg nothing can
exceed the beauties of the country; whole
woods, and we may fay forefts, of evergreen
timber, keep all idea of winter kindly at a
diftance: the road lies through thefe ele-
gantly-varied thickets, which fometimes are
formed of cedars, often of foxtailed pines,
while a pale larch fometimes, and
gloomy cyprefs, hinder the verdure from
being too monotonous; here are likewife
mingled among them fome oak and beech of
a majeftic fize. Nor do our profpects want
that dignity which mountains alone can be-
ftow ; thofe which feparate Bavaria from Hun-
gary are high, and of confiderable extent; a
long range they are of bulky fortifications,
behind which [ am informed the country is
far coarfer than here.

The cathedral at Saltzbourg is modern,
built upon the model of St. Peter’s at Rome,
but on a fmall fcale: one now fees how few
the defects are of that aftonifhing pile, though
brought clofe to one’s eye, by being ftript of

the

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY, 283

the awful magnitude that kept examination at
a diftance. The mufical bells remind me of
thofe at Bath, and every thing here feems, as
at Bath, the work of this prefent century ;
but there is a Benedictine convent feated on
the top of a hill above the town, of exceeding
antiquity, founded before the conqueft of
England by William the Norman; under
which lie its founder and protetors, the old
Dukes of Bavaria; which they are happy to eA
thew travellers, with the regiftered account
of their young Prince 4am, who came over
to our ifland with William, and gained a fet=
tlement: they were pleafed when I proved to
them, that his blood was not yet wholly ex-
tind among us.

A fever hindered us here from looking at
the falt-works, from which the city takes its
name: but the water-works at Heelbrun
pleafed us for a moment; and I never faw
beavers live fo happily as with the Archbifhop
of Saltzbourg, who fuffers, and even en-
courages, his tame ones to dig, and build,
and amufe themfelves their own way: he has
fifh too which eat out of his hand, and are
not carp, but I do not know what they are;

my;

284 OBSERVATIONS IN A

my want of language diftratts me. Thefe
German ftreams appear to us particularly pel-
lucid, and, by what I can gather from the
people, this water never freezes. The tafte of
gardening feems juft what ours was in England
before Stowe was planned, and they divert
you now with puppets moved by concealed
machinery, as I recolle& their doing at places
round London, called the Spaniard at Hamp-
ftead and Don Saltero’s at Chelfea.

The Prince Archbifhop’s income is from
three to four hundred thoufand a year I un-
derftand, and he fpends it among his fubjects,
who half adore him. His chief delight is in
brute animals they tell me, particularly horfes,
which engrofs fo much of his attention that he
keeps one hundred and feventeen for his own
private and perfonal ufe, of various merits,
beauties, and pedigrees; never furely was fo
elegant, fo capital a ftud! And he is fingu-
larly fond of a breed of fine filky-haired Eng-
lith fetting-dogs, red and white, and yery
high upon their legs. .

The country which carried us forward to
Vienna is eminently fine, and fine in a way
that is now once more grown new tome; no
hedges here, no fmall inclofures at all ; but

rich

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 285

rich land, lying like as in Dorfetthire, divided
into arable and pafture grounds, clumped
about with woods of evergreen. Such is the
genius of this fovereign for Englifh manners
and Englifh agriculture, that no converfation
is faid to be more welcome at his court than
what relates to the {ports or profits of the field
in Britain; to which accounts he liftens with
good-humoured earneftnefs, and talks of a
fine fcenting day with the true tafte of an
Englifh country gentleman.

On this day I firft faw the Danube at Lintz,
where, though but juft burft from the fpring,
it is already fo deep and ftrong that {carcely
any wooden bridge is capable to refift it, and
accordingly it did a few months ago over=
whelm many cottages and fields, among
which we paffed. The inhabitants here call it
Donaw from its fwiftnefs; and it deferves be-
fide, any name expreflive of that fingular pu-
rity which diftinguifhes the German torrents.

The rivers of France, Italy, and England,
give one no idea of that elemental perfe@tion
found in the fluids here; not a pebble, not a
fith in thefe tranflucent ftreams, but may be

difcerned to a depth of twelve feet. As the
2 water

286 OBSERVATIONS IN A

water in Germany, fo is the atmofphere in
Italy, a medium fo little obftru@ted by vapour
T remember, that Vefuvius looked as near to
Naples, from our window, as does lord Lif
burne’s park from the little town of Exmouth
oppofite, a diftance of about five miles I be=
lieve, andthe other is nearten. Let me add;
that this peculiarity brings every object for-
ward with a certain degree of hardnefs not
wholly pleafing to the eye. The profpects
round Naples have another fault, refulting from
too great perfection : the fky’s brilliant unifor=
mity, and utter cloudleffnefe for many months
together, takes away thofe broad mafles of
light and fhade, with the volant fhadows that
crofs our Britith hills, relieving the fight, and
difcriminating the land{cape.

The fcenery round. Conway Caftle in North
Wales, with a thunder-ftorm rolling over the
mountain; the fea ftrongly illuminated on
one fide, with the fun fhining bright upon
the verdure on the other; the lights dropping
in patches about one; exhibits a variety, the
which to equal will be very difficult, let us tra-
vel as far as we pleafe.

Magnificence of a far different kind how-
ever claims our prefent attention—a convent

and

‘JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 287

and church fhewn us at Molcke upon our
way, the refidence of eighteen friars who in~
habit a ftately palace it is confefled, while three
immenfe courts precede your entrance to a
fplendid ftructure of enormous fize, on which
the finery beftowed amazed even me, who
came from Rome; nor had entertained an
idea of feeing fuch gilding, and carving, and
profufion of expence, lavifhed on a place of
religious retirement in our road to

Ved EoNoN JA.

' We entered the capital by night; but Tf
fancied, perhaps from having been told fo
that I faw fomething like a look of London
round me. Apartments furnifhed wholly in
the Paris tafte take off that look a little; fo
do the public walks and drives which are form-
ed etoile-wife, and moving flowly up and
down the avenues, you fee large ftags, wild
boars, &c. grazing at liberty: this is grander
than our park, and graver than the Corfo.
Whenever they lay out a piece of water in this
country, it is covered as in ours with fwans,

who

§

288 OBSERVATIONS IN A

who have completely quitted the odoriferous
Po for the clear and rapid Danube.
- Vienna was not likely to ftrike ote with
its churches ; yet the old cathedral is majeftic,
and by no means ftript of thofe ornaments
which, while one fec& of Chriftians think it par-
licularly pleafing in the fight of God to re-
tain, is hardly warrantable in another fect,
though wifer, to be over-hafty in tearing
away. Here are however many devotional
figures and chapels left in the ftreets I fee,
which, from the tales told in Auftrian Lom-
bardy, one had little reafon to expect ; but the
emperor is tender even to the foibles of his
Viennefe fubje&ts, while he fhews little feel-
ing to Italian mifery. Men drawing carts
along the roads and ftreet afford, indeed, fome-
what an awkward proof the government’s le-
nity when human creatures are levelled with
the beafts of burden, and called /fott ei/el, or
Ftout affes, as 1 underftand, who by this in-
formation have learned that the frame which
fupports a picture is for the fame reafon called
an ei/el, as we call a thing to hang clothes on
-a horfe. tis the genius of the German lan-
guage to degrade all our Englifh words fome-
how:

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 289

how: they call a coach a waggon, and afk
a lady if fhe will buy pomatum to fmear her
hair with. Such is however the refemblance
between their tongue and ours, that the Ita-
lians proteft they cannot feparate either the
ideas or the words

I muft mention our going to the poft-office
with a Venetian friend to look for letters,
where, after receiving fome furly teplies from
the people who attended there, our laquais
de place reminded my male companions that
they fhould ftand wacovered. Finding them
however fomewhat dilatory in their obedi-
ence, arough fellow fnatched the hat from
one of their heads, faying, ‘* Don’t you
know, Sir, that you are flanding before the
emperor's officers ?” —“ I know,” replied the
prompt Italian, “ that we are come to a coun
try where people wear their hats in the church,
fo need not wonder we are bid to take them
off in the poft-office.’ Well, where rulers are’
faid or fuppofed to be tyrannical, it is rational
that good provifion fhould be made for arms;
otherwife defpotifin dwindles into nugatory
pompoufnefs and airy fhow ; Profpero’s em-
pire in the enchanted ifland of Shakefpeare is
not more fhadowy than the fight of prince-

Vot. II. U dom

290 OBSERVATIONS IN A

dom united with impotence of power :—fuch
have I feen, but fuch is not the charaéter of
Keyfar’s dominion. ‘The arfenal here is the
fineft thing in the world I fuppofe ; it grieved
me to feel the ideas of London and Venice
fade before it fo ; but the enormous fize and
folidity of the quadrangle, the quantity and
difpofition of the cannon, bombs, and mortars,
filled my mind with enforced refpeét, and
fhook my nerves with the thought of what
might follow fach dreadful preparation.

Nothing can im fa& be grander than the
fight of the Auftrian eagle, all made out in
arms, eight anctent heroes fternly frowning
round it. Fhe choice has fallen on Cefar,
Pompey, Alexander, Scipio, Hannibal, Fa-
bius Maximus, Cyrus, and Themiftocles. |
fhould have thought Pyrrhus worthier the
company of all the reft than this laft-named
hero ; but petty criticifms are much lefs wor-
thy a place in Vienna’s arfenal, which im-
prefles one with a very majeftic idea of Impe-
rial greatnefs.

On the firft of November we tried at an
excurfion into Hungary, where we meant to
have furveyed the Danube in all its dignity at
Prefburgh, and have heard Hayden at Efther-

4 hazie.

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 293
hazie. But my being unluckily taken ill, pre-
vented us from profecuting our journey fur-
ther than a wretched village, where I was
laid up with a fever, and difappointed my
company of much hoped-for entertainment.
It was curious however to find one’s felf within
a few pofts of the places one had read fo much
of ; and the words Route de Belgrade upon
a finger-poft gave me fenfations of diftance
never felt before. The comfortable fight of a
proteftant chapel near me made much amends
however. ‘The officiating priefts were of the
Moravian feét it feems, and dear Mr. Hut-
ton’s image rufhed upon my mind. A burial
pafling by my windows, ftruck me as very
extraordinary : not one follower or even bearer
being drefled in black, but all with green
robes trimmed with dark brown furs, not
robes neither ; but like long coats down to the
men’s heels, cut in fkirts, and trimmed up
thofe fkirts as well as round the bottom with
fur.

It was a melancholy country that we
pafled through, very bleak and difmal, and |
truft would not have mended upon us had we
gone further. The few people one fees are all
ignorant, and can all fpeak Latin—fuch asit

U 2 is—

ae ee eee ne oe

292 OBSERVATIONS IN A

is—very fluently. I have lived with matiy
very knowing people who never could {peak
it with any fluency at all. Such is life !—and
fuch is learning! I long to talk about the
fheep and {wine: they feem very worthy of
obfervation ; the latter large and finely fhaped,
of the old favage race; one fancies them like
thofe Eumzus tended, and perhaps they are
fo; with tufks of fingular beauty and whitenefs,
which the uniformly brown colour of the
creature fhews off to much advantage ; amidft
his dark curls, waving all over his high back
and long fides, in the manner of a curl-pated
baby in England, only that the laft is com-
monly fair and blonde.

The fheep are fpotted like our pigs, but
prettier ; black and yellow like a tortoife-fhell

_eat, with horns as long as thofe of any he-

goat I ever faw, but very different; thefe
animals carrying them ftraight upright like an
antelope, and they are of a {piral fhape. Our
mutton meantime is deteflable ; but here are
incomparable fifh, carp large as {mall Severn
falmon, and they bring them to table cut in
pounds, and the joul for a handfome difh. I
only wonder one has never heard of any an-
cient or any modern gluttons driving away to

Prefburg

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 293

Prefburg or Buda, for the fake of eating a
fine Danube carp.

With regard to men and women in Hun-
gary, they are not thickly {cattered, but their
lamentations are loud; the emperor having
refumed all the privileges granted them by
Maria Therefa in the year 1740, or there-
abouts, when diftrefs drove her to fhelter in
that country, and has prohibited the import-
tion of falt herrings which ufed to come duty
free from Amfterdam, fo that their fafts are
rendered incommodious from the afperity of
the foil, which produces very little vegetable
food. | 3

Ground fquirrels are frequent in the forefts
here; but without Pennant’s Synopfis I never
remember the Linnzan names of quadrupeds,
fo can get no information of the animal called
a glutton in Englifh, whofe fkin I fee in every
fur-fhop, and who, I fancy, inhabits our
Hungarian woods.

The Imperial colle@tion of pictures here is
really a magnificent repofitory of Italian tafte,
Flemifh colouring, and Dutch exactnefs: in
which the Baptift, by Giulio Romano, the
crucifixion by Vandyke, and the phylician

U 3 holding

294 OBSERVATIONS IN A

holding up a bottle to the light by Gerard
Douw, are great examples.

One does not in thefe countries look out par-
ticularly for the works of Roman or Bolognefe
mafters ; but I remember a wonderful Caracci
at Munich, worthy a firft place even in the
Zampieri palace; the fubje&, Venus fitting
under a great tree diverting herfelf with fee-
ing a {cuffle between the two boys Cupid and
Anteros.

In the gallery here at Vienna, many of the
pictures have been handled a good deal; one
is dazzled with the brilliancy of thefe power-
ful colourifts: and here is a David Teniers
furprifingly natural, of Abraham offering up
Ifaac; a glorious Pordenone reprefenting
Santa Juftina, reminded me of her fine church
at Padua, and 4zs centurion at Cremona,
which I know not who could excel; and here
is Furino’s Sigifmunda to be feen, the fame
or a duplicate of that fold at Sir Luke
Schaub’s fale in London about thirty years
ago, and called Correggio. I have feen
it at Merriworth too, if not greatly mif-
taken. The price it went for in Lang-
ford’s auétion-room I cannot furely forget,
it was three thoufand pounds, or they faid /o.

I will

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 295

{ will only add a word of a Dutch girl re-
prefenting Herodias, and fo lively in its co-
louring, that I think the king would have
denied her who refembled it nothing, had he
been a native of Amfterdam. A Mount
Calvary painted by the fame hand is very
ftriking, with a crowd of people gathered
about the crofs, and men felling cakes to the
mob, as if at a fair or horfe-race: two
young peafants at fifty-cuffs upon the fore
ground quarrelling, as it fhould feem, about
the propriety of our Saviour’s execution.

But I have this day heard fo many and fuch
interefting particulars concerning the empe-
ror, that I fhould not forgive my‘felf if I failed
to record and relate them, the lefs becaufe
my authority was particularly good, and the
anecdotes fingular and pleating.

He rifes then at five o’clock every morning,
even at this fharp feafon, writes in private till
nine, takes fome refrefhment then, and im-
mediately after calls his minifters, and em-
ploys the time till one profefledly in ftate
affairs, rides out till three, returns and ftudies
alone, letting the people bring his dinner at
the appointed hour, chufes ont of all the
things they bring him one difh, and fets it

U4 on

|
}
f
|
|

2.96 OBSERVATIONS IN A

on the ftove to keep hot, eating it when
nature calls for food, but never detaining a
fervant in the room to wait; at five he goes
to the Corridor juft near his own apartment,
where poor and rich, {mall and great, have
accefs to his perfon at pleafure, and often get
him to arbitrate their law-fuits, and decide
their domeftic differences, as nothing is more
agreeable to him than finding himfelf confi-
dered by his people as their father, and dif-
penfer of juftice over all his extenfive domi-
nions. His attention to the duties he has im-
pofed upon himfelf is fo great, that, in order
to maintain a pure impartiality in his mind
towards every claimant, he fuffers no man or
woman to have any influence over him, and
forbears even the flight gratification of fond-
ling a dog, left it fhould take up too much of
his time. ‘The emperor is a ftranger upon
principle to the joys of confidence and friend-
fhip, but cultivates the acquaintance of many
ladies and gentlemen, at whofe houfes (when
they fee company) he drops in, and fpends
the evening cheerfully in cards or converfa-
tion, putting no man under the leaft reftraint;
and if he fees a new comer in look difcon-
certed, goes up to him and fays kindly, “ Di-

vert

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 207

vert yourfelf your own way, good Sir; and do
not let me difturb you.’ His coach is like the
commoneft gentleman’s of Vienna; his fer-
vants diftinguifhed only by the plainnefs of
their liveries; and, left their infolence might
make his company troublefome to the houfes
where he vifits, he leaves the carriage in the
ftreet, and will not even be driven into the
court-yard, where other equipages and foot-
men wait. A large difh of hot chocolate thick-
ened with bread and cream is a common
afternoon’s regale here, and the emperor often
takes one, obferving to the miftrefs of the
houfe how acceptable fuch a meal is to him
after fo wretched a dinner.

A few mornings ago fhowed his character in
a ftrong light. Some poor women were coming
down the Danube on a float, the planks fepa-
rated, and they were in danger of drowning;
as itwasvery early in the day, and no one awake
upon the fhore except a fawyer that was cut-
ting wood ; who, not being able to obtain
from his phlegmatic neighbours that affiftance
their cafe immediately required, ran dire@ly
to call the emperor who he knew would be
flirring, and who came flying to give that
help which from fome happy accident was no

longer

298 . OBSERVATIONS IN A

longer wanted: but Jofeph loft no good hu-
mour on the occafion; on the contrary, he con-
gratulated the women on their deliverance,
praifing at the fame time and rewarding the
fellow for having difturbed him.

My informer told me likewife, that if two
men difpute about any matter till mifchief is
expected, the wife of one of them will often
cry out, “Come, have done, have done direétly,
or I'll call our mafter, and hell make you have
done.’ Now is it fair not to do every thing but
adore a fovereign like this? when we know that
if fuch tales were told us of Marcus Aurelius, or
Titus Vefpafian, it would be our delight to repeat,
our favourite learning to read of them. Such
conduct would ferve fucceeding princes for
models, nor could the weight of a dozen
centuries {mother their ftill rifing fame, Yet
is not my heart perfuaded that the reputation
of Jofeph the Second will be configned im-
maculate from, age to age, like that of thefe
immortal worthies, though dearly purchafed
by the lofs of eafe and pleafure; while neither
the mitred prelate nor the blamelefs puritan
purfue with bleffings a heart unawed by fplen-
dour, unfoftened by fimplicity; a hand
ftretched forth rather to difpenfe juftice, than

opening fpontaneoufly to diftribute charity.
To

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 299

To fpeak lefs folemnly, if men were nearer
than they are to perfe& creatures, abfolute
monarchy would be the moft perfect form of
government, for the will of the prince could
never deviate from propriety ; but if one king
can fee all with his own eyes, and hear all
with his own ears, no fucceffor will ever be
able to do the fame; and it is like giving
Harrifon 10,0001. for finding the longitude,
to commend a perfon for having hit on the
right way of governing a great nation, while
his {cience is incommunicable, and his powers
of execution muft end with his life.

The fociety here is charming; Sherlock
fays, that he who does not like Vienna is his
own fatirift; I fhall leave others to be mine.
The ladies here feem very highly accomplifhed,
and fpeak a great variety of languages with
facility, ftudying to adorn the converfation
with every ornament that literature can be-
ftow ; nor do they appear terrified as in Lon-
don, left pedantry fhould be imputed to them,
for venturing fometimes to ufe in company
that knowledge they have acquired in pri-
vate by diligent application. Here alfo are
to be feen young unmarried women once
again: miffes, who wink -at each other, and

titter

300 OBSERVATIGNS IN A’

titter in corners at what is pafling in the
rooms, public er private: I had lived fo long
away from ‘them, that I had half forgotten
their exiftence.

The horfes here are trimmed at the heels,
and led about in body clothes like ours in»
England; but their drawing is ill managed, no
fhafts fomehow but a pele, which, when there
is one horfe only, looks awkward and hadly
contrived, Beafts of various kinds plowing to-
gether has a ftrange look, and the ox har-
nefled up like a hunter in a phaecton cuts a
comical figureenough. Oneneed no longer fay,
Gptat ephippia bos piger™;, but it is very filly,
as no ufe can be thus made of that ftrength
which lies only in his head and horns.
Plenty of wood makes the Germans profufely
elegant in their pales, hurdles, &ce. which
give an air of comfort and opulence, and
make the beft compenfation a cold climate can
make for the hedges of jeflamine and medlay
flowers, which I fhall fee no more.

Our architeCture here can hardly be expe@-
ed to pleafe an eye made faftidious from the
contemplation of Michael Angelo’s works at
Rome, or Palladio’s at Venice ;_ nor will Ger-

* The lazy_ox for trappings fighs,
man

JOURNEY THROUGH “GERMANY. «301

man mufic much delight thofe who have been
long accuftomed to more fimple melody,
though intrinfic merit and complicated excel-
lence will always deferve the higheft note of
praife. Whoever takes upon him to under-rate
that which no one can obtain without infinite
labour and ftudy, will ever be cenfured, and
juftly, for refufing the reward due to deep
refearch ; but if a man’s tafte leads him to like
Cyprus wine, let him drink that, and content
himfelf with commending the o/d hock.

Apropos, we hear that Sacchini, the Metaftafie
of mufical compofers, is dead ; but nobody at
Vienna cares about his compofitions. Our
Italian friends are more candid; they are
always,talking in favour of Bach and Brug-
huel, Handel and Rubens.

The cabinet of natural hiftory is exceed-
ingly fine, and the rooms fingularly well dif-
’ pofed. There are more cameos at Bologna,
and one fuperior fpecimen of native gold:
every thing elfe I believe is better here, and
fuch opals did I never fee before, no not at
Loretto: the petrified lemon and artichoke
have no equals, and a brown diamond
was new to me to-day. A {pecimen of fea~
falt filled with air bubbles like the rings one
2 buys

ee

302 OBSERVATIONS IN A

buys at Vicenza, is worth going a long way
to look at; but the gentleman at Munich,
who fhewed us the Virgin Mary in a cobweb,
had a piece of red filver fhot out into a ruby
like cryftal, more extraordinary than any mi-
neral production I have feen. Our attention
was caught by Maria Therefa’s bouquet, but
one cannot forget the pearls belonging to the
eletrefs of Bavaria.

What feemed, however, moft to charm the
people who fhewed the cabinet, was a {nuff-
box confifting of various gems, none bigger
than a barley-corn, each of prodigious value,
and the workmanfhip of more, every fquare
being inlaid fo neatly, and no precious ftone
repeated, though the number is no lefs than
one hundred and eighty-three; a falfe bottom
befides of gold, opening with a {pring touch,
and difcovering a written catalogue of the
jewels in the fineft hand-writing, and the {mall-
eft poffible. This was to me a real curiofitys
afforded a new and fingular proof of that
aftonifhing power of eye, and delicacy of
manual operation, feconded by a patient and
perfevering attention to things frivolous in
themfelves, which will be for ever alike ne-

glected

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 303

glected by the fire of Italian genius, and dif-
dained by the dignity of Britith fcience.

We have feen other fort of things to-day
however. The Hungarian and Bohemian
robes pleafed me beft, and the wild unfet
jewels in the diadem of Tranfylvania im-
prefled me with a valuable idea of Gothic
greatnefs. The fervice of gold plate too is
very grand from its old-fafhioned folidity. I
liked it better than I did the fnuff-box; and
here is a difh in ivory puts one in mind of no-
thing but Achilles’s fhield, fo workedis its broad
margin with miniature reprefentations of bat-
tles, land{capes, &c. three dozen different {tories
round the difh, one might have looked at it
with microfcopes for a week together. The
porcelane plates have been painted to ridicule:
Raphael's pots at Loretto I fancy ; Julio Ro-
mano’s manner is comically parodied upon
one of them.

Prince Lichtenftein’s pitures are charm-
ing; a Salmacis in the water by Albano is
the beft work of that mafter I ever faw,
not diffufed as his works commonly are, but
all colle&ted fomehow, and fine in a way I
cannot exprefs for want of more knowledge ;
very, very fine it is however, and full of ex-
preflion and character. The Caracci fchool

again,

SA APR

304. OBSERVATIONS IN A

again.—Here is the whole hiftcry of Decius
by Rubens too, wonderfully learned ; and an
affumption of the Virgin fo like Mrs. Pritchard
our famous actrefs, no portrait ever reprefent-
ed her fo well. A St. Sebaftian divinely
beautiful, by Vandyke; and a girl playing on
the guitar, which you may run round almoft,
by the coarfe but natural hand of Caravagio. -

The library is new and fplendid, and they
buy books for it very liberally. The learned
and ainiable Abbé Denys fhewed me a thou-
fand unmerited civilities, was charmed with
the character of Dr. Johnfon, and delighted
with the ftory of his converfation at Rouen
with Monf. PAbbé Roffette. This gentle-
man feems to love England very much, and
Englith literature; {poke of Humphry Pri-
deaux with refpeét, and has his head full of
Offian’s poetry, of which he can repeat whole
pages. He fhewed mea fragment of Livy
written in the fifth century, a pfalter and
creed beautifully illuminated of the year
nine hundred, and a large portion of St.
Mark’s gofpel on blue paper of the year three
hundred and feven. A Bibbia de Poveri too,
as the Italians call it, curious enough; the
figures all engraved on wood, and only a text
at bottom to explain them.

Wincef-

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 305

Winceflaus marked every book he ever pof-
feffed, it feems, with the five vowels on the back;
and almoft every one with fome little miniature
made by himfelf, recording his efcape from
confinement at Prague in Bohemia, where the
wafher-woman having aflifted him to get out
of prifon under pretence of bathing, he has been
very ftudious to regifter the event ; fo much
fo that even on the margins of his bible he
has been tempted to paint paft fcenes that
had better have been blotted from his me-
mory.

The Livy which learned men have hoped
to find fafe in the feraglio of Conftantinople,
was burned by their late fultan Amurath, our
Abbé Denys tells me; the motive fprung from
miftaken piety, but the effeé is to be lamented.
He fhewed me an Alcoran in extremely {mall
charaéters, furprifingly fo indeed, taken out
of a Turkith officer's pocket when John Sobi-
efky raifed the fiege of this city in the year
1590, and a preacher took for his text the
Sunday after, “ There was a man fent from
God whofe name was John.” 1 was much
amufed with a fight of the Mexican MSS and
Peruvian quipos; nor are the Turkih figures

Vor, Il. x of

3c6 OBSERVATIONS IN 4A

of Adam and Eve, our Saviour and his mo-
ther, lefs remarkable ; but Mahomet furround-
ed by a glory about his head, a veil concealing
his face as too bright for infpeCtion, exceeded
all the reft.

Here are many ladies of fafhion in this
town very eminent for their mufical abilities,
particularly Mefdemoifelles de Martinas, one of
whom is member of the Academies of Berlin
and Bologna: the celebrated Metaftafio died in
their houfe, after having lived with the family
fixty-five years more or lefs. They fet his poe-
try and fing it very finely, appearing to recol-
lect his converfation and friendthip, with infinite
tendernefs and delight. He was to have been
prefented to the Pope the very day he died,
I underftand, and in the delirium which im-
mediately preceded diffolution he raved much
of the fuppofed interview. Unwilling to hear
of death, no one was ever permitted even ta
mention it before him; and nothing put him
fo certainly out of humour, as finding that
rule tranfgreffed even by his neareft friends.
Even the fmall-pox was not to be named in
his prefence, and whoever did name that dif-
order, though unconfcious of the offence he

Be" had

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 367

had given, Metaftafio would fee him no more. ©
The other peculiarities I could gather from
Mifs Martinas were thefe: That he had con-
tentedly lived half a century at Vienna, without
ever even wifhing to learn its language; that he
had never given more than five guineas Englifh
money in all that time to the poor; that he
always fat in the fame feat at church, but ne=
ver paid for it, and that nobody dared afk
him for the trifling fum; that he was grate=
ful and beneficent to the friends who began
by being his protectors; but ended much his
debtors, for folid benefits as well as for elegant
prefents, which it was his delight to be per-
petually making them, leaving to them at laft
all he had ever gained without the charge
even of a fingle legacy; obferving in his will
that it was to them he owed it, and other
condu& would in him have been injuftices
Such were the fentiments, and fuch the con=
duct of this great poet, of whom it is of little
confequence to tell, that he never changed the
fafhion of his wig, the cut or colour of his
coat, fo that his portrait taken not very long
ago looks like thofe of Boileau or Moliere
at the head of their works. His life was
arranged with fuch methodical exadinefs, that

aa he

2S

SSR ae

AE NT petal aioe Ton Site ai ET

SSS aE EEE a

308 . OBSERVATIONS IN A

he rofe, ftudied, chatted, flept, and dined at the
fame hours for fifty years together, enjoying
uninterrupted health, which probably gave him
that happy {weetnef{s of temper, or habitual gen-
tlenefs of manners, which never fuffered itfelf
to be ruffled, but when his fole injunétion was
forgotten, and the death of any perfon whatever
was unwittingly mentioned before him. No
{olicitation had ever prevailed on him to dine
from home, nor had his neareft intimates ever
feen him eat more than a bifcuit with his le-
monade, every meal being performed with
even myfterious privacy to the laft. When
his end approached by fteps fo very rapid, He
did not in the leaft fufpec& that it was coming;
and Mademoifelle Martinas has fcarcely yet
done rejoicing in the thought that he efcaped’
the preparations he fo dreaded. His early
paflion for a celebrated finger is well known
upon the continent ; fince that affair finifhed,
all his pleafures have been confined to mufic
and converfation. He had the fatisfaGiion of
fecing the feventieth edition of his works I
think they faid, but am afhamed to copy out
the number from my own notes, it feems fo
very ftrange; and the delight he took in
hearing the lady he lived with fing his fongs,
4 "was

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 309

was vifible to every one. An Italian Abate
here faid, comically enough, “ Oh! he looked
like a man in the ftate of beatification always
when Mademoifelle de Martinas accompanied
his verfes with her fine voice and brilliant
finger. The father of Metaftafio was a gold-
{mith at Rome, but his fon had fo devoted
himfelf to the family he lived with, that he
refufed to hear, and took pains not to know,
whether he had in his latter days any one
relation left in the world. On a character fo
fingular I leave my readers to make their own
obfervations and reflections.

Au refte, as the French fay ; I have no no-
tion that Vienna, /empre ventofo o velenofo *,
can be a very wholefome place to live in; the '
double windows, double feather-beds, &c. in
a room without a chimney, is furely ill con-
trived ; and fleeping {mothered up in down fo,
like a hydrophobous patient in fome parts of
{reland, is not particularly agreeable, though
I begin to like it better than I did. All ex-
ternal air is fhut out in fuch a manner that I
am frighted left, after a certain time, the room
fhould become like an exhaufted receiver,

* Ever ftormy or venemous.

ag while

310 OBSERVATIONS IN A

while the wind whirls one about the ftreet in
fuch a manner that it is difpleafing to put out
one’s head; and a phyfician from Ragufa
fettled here told me, that wounded lungs are
a common confequence of the triturated ftone
blown about here; and in fa& afthmas and
confumptions are their reigning difeafes,
Apropos, the plague is now raging in Tran=
fylvania ; how little fafe fhould we think our-
felves at London, were a diforder fo contagious
known to be no farther diftant than Derby?
The diftance is fcarcely greater now from Vienna
to the place of diftrefs; yet I will not fay we
are in much danger to be fure, for that per-
petual connection kept up between all the
towns and counties of Great Britain is un-
known in other nations, and we fhould be as
many days going to Tranfylvania from here
perhaps, as we fhould be dors running from
Toddenham-court road to Derby.
Sheenburn is pretty, but it is no feafon for fee-
ing prettyplaces. The ftreets of Vienna are not
pretty at all, God knows; fo narrow, fo ill built,
fo crowded, many wares placed upon the ground
where there is a little opening, feems a ftrange
awkward difpofition of things for fale; and the
people cutting wood in the fireet makes one
ue : half

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 311

half wild when walking ; it is hardly poffible
to pafs another ftrange cuftom, borrowed from
Italy I truft, of fhutting up their fhops in the
middle of the day ; it muft tend, one would
think, but little to the promotion of that com-
merce which the fovereign profefles to en-
courage, and I {ee no excufe for it Lere which
can be made from heat, gaiety, or devotion.
Many families living in the fame houfe, and
at the entrance of the apartments belonging
to each, a flrong iron gate to feparate the
refidence of one fet from that of another, has
likewife an odd melancholy look, like that of
a prifon ora nunnery. Nunneries, however,
-here are none; and if the oid women turned
out of thofe they have long dwelt in, are not
provided with decent penfions, it muft furely
diftrefs even the Emperor’s cold heart to fee age
driven from the refuges of difappointment,
and forced to wander through the world with
inexperience for its guide, while youth is no
longer /ed, but ¢hruff into temptation by fuch
a fudden tranfition from utter retirement to
open and buly life.

We have been this morning to look over
his academy of painting, &c. His exhibition-
room is neatly kept, and I dare fay will pro-

X 4 {per ;

312 OBSERVATIONS IN A

{per: the ftudents are zealous and laborious,
and earneftly defire the promulgation of
{cience: their colleGtion of models is meagre,
but it will mend by degrees. Perhaps Jofeph
the Id. is the firft European fovereign who,
eftablifhing a fchool for painting and feulp-
ture, has infifted on the artifts never exercif-
ing their fkill upon any fubje& which could
hurt any perfon’s delicacy ;—an example well
worthy honeft praife and fpeedy imitation.
The very few charitable foundations efta-
blifhed at Vieana by Imperial munificence are
well managed; their paucity is accounted for
by the recolleétion of many abufes confequent
on the late Emprefs’s bounty ; her fon there-
fore took all the annuities away, which he
thought her tendernefs had been duped out
of; but let it be remembered that when he
rides or walks in a morning, he always takes
with him a hundred ducats, out of which he
never brings any home, but gives in private
donations what he knows to be well beftow-
ed, without the oftentation of affected gene-
rofity; it is not in rewards for paft fervices
perhaps, nor in public and flately inftitutions,
as I am told here, that this prince’s liberalities

are to be looked for ; yet—
In

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 373

In Mis’ry’s darkeft caverns known, |
His ufeful care is ever nigh;

Where hopelefs Anguifh pours her groan,
And lonely Want retires to die.

Tomorrow (23d of November) we venture
to leave Vienna and proceed northwards, as
I long to fee the Drefden gallery. Here
every thing appears to me a caricatura of
London; the lazguage like ours, but coarfer;
the plays like ours, but duller; the ftreets at
night lighted up, not like ours now, but very
like what they were thirty or forty years
ago. 53
Among the people I have feen here, Ma-
demoifelle Paradies, the blind performer on
the harpfichord, interefted me very much;
—and fhe liked England fo, and the King
and Queen were fo kind to her, and fhe was
fo happy, the faid !—While life and its vex~
ations feem to opprefs fuch numbers of hearts,
and cloud fuch variety of otherwife agreeable
faces, one muft go to a blind girl to hear of
happinefs, it feems! But fhe has wonderful
talents for languages as well as mufic, and has
learned the Englifh pronunciation moft fur-
prifingly. It is a foothing fight when one
finds the mind compenfate for the body’s de-
fects :

3144 OBSERVATIONS IN A

fects: I took great delight in the converfation
of Mademoifelle Paradies.
The collection of rarities, particularly an

_ Alexander’s head worthy of Capo di Monte,

now in the pofleflion of Madame de Heffe, be-
came daily more my ftudy, as I received more
and more civilities from the charming family
at whofe houfe it refides: there are fome very
fine cameos in it, and a great variety of mif-
cellaneous curiofities.

So different are the cuftoms here and at
Venice, that the German ladies offer you

’ chocolate on the fame falver with coffee, of an

evening, and fill up both with milk; faying
that you may have the latter quite black if
you chufe it— Tout noir, Monfieur, @ laVene-
tienne ;—adding their beft advice not to rifque
a practice fo unwholefome. While their care
upon that account reminds me chiefly of a
friend, who lives upon the Grand Canal, that
in reply to a long panegyric upon Englifh de-
licacy, faid fhe would tell a {tory that would
prove them to be nafty enough, at leaft in
fome things ; for that fhe had actually feen a
handfome young nobleman, who came from
London (and ought to have known better ),
fouce fome thick cream into the fine clear

coffee

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 315

cofiece fhe prefented him with; which every
body muft confefs to be vera fporcheria!
a very piggi/b trick!—So neceflary and fo
pleafing is conformity, and fo abfurd and per-
verfe is it ever to forbear fuch affimilation of
manners, when not inconfiftent with the
virtue, honour, or neceflary intereft :—let us
eat four-crout in Germany, frittura at Milan,
macaroni at Naples, and beef-fteaks in Eng-
land, if one wifhes to pleafe the inhabitants
of either country ; and all are very good, fo it
is a flight compliance. Poor Dr. Goldfmith
faid once— I would advife every young fel-
low fetting out in life to Jove gravy ;’—and
added, that he had formerly feen a glutton’s
eldeft nephew difinherited, becaufe his uncle
never could perfuade him to fay he liked

ptavys

316 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Pi Ro: Ae Gian eats

THE inns between Vienna and this place
are very bad; but we arrived here fafe the
24th of November, when I looked for little
comfort but much diverfion; things turned
out however exactly the reverfe, and aux
bains de Prague in Bohemia we found beds
more elegant, dinners neater drefled, apart-
ments cleaner and with a lefs foreign afpedt,
than almoft any where elfe. Such is not
mean time the general appearance of the town
out of doors, which is favage enough; and
the celebrated bridge fingularly ugly I think,
crowded with vaft groupes of ill-made ftatues,
and heavy to excefs, though not incom-
modious to drive over, and of a furprifing
extent. Thefe German rivers are magni-
ficent, and our Mulda here (which is but a
branch of the Elbe neither) is refpeCtable for
its volume of water, ufeful for the fifth con-
tained in it, and lovely in the windings of its

courte.
Bohemia

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 317

Bohemia feems no badly-cultivated coun-
try ; the ground undulates like many parts of
Hertfordfhire, and the property feems divided
much in the fame manner as about Dunftable;
my head ran upon Lilly-hoo, when they
fhewed me the plains of Kolin.

Doétor Johnfon was very angry with a
gentleman at our houfe once, I well remem-
ber, for not being better company; and urged
that he had travelled into Bohemia, and feen
Prague :—“ Surely,” added he, “ the man
who has feen Prague might tell us fomething
new and fomething ftrange, and not fit filent
for want of matter to put his lips in motion !”
Horrefco referens ;—I have now been at
Prague as well as Doctor Fitzpatrick, but have
brought away nothing very interefting I fear ;
unlefs that the floor of the opera-ftage there is
inlaid, which fo far as I have obferved isa mew
thing; the cathedral I am fure is an old
thing, and charged with heavy and ill-chofen
ornaments, worthy of the age in which it was.
fabricated !—One would be loth to fee any
alteration take place, or any picture drive old
Frank’s Three Kings, divided into three com-
partments, from its ftation over the high altar.

St.

318 OBSERVAWIONS IN-A

St. John Neppomucene has an altar here alf
of folid filver, very bright and clean; his
having been flung into the river Mulda in
the perfecuting days, holding faft his crucifix
and his religion, gives him a rational title to
veneration among the martyrs, and he is
confidered as the tutelar faint here, where his
ftlatue meets one at the entrance of every
town.

This truly Gothic edifice was very near
being deftroyed by the King of Pruffia, who
bombarded the city thirty-five years ago; I
faw the mark made by one ball juft at the
cathedral door, and heard with horror of the
dreadful fiege, when an egg was fold for a
florin, and other eatables in proportion: the
whole town has, in confequence of that long
blockade, a ragged and half-ruined melan-
choly afpeé&t ; and the roads round it, then
broken up, have fcarcely been mended fince,

The ladies too looked more like mafquerad-
ing figures than any thing elfe, as they fat
. in their boxes at the opera, with rich embroi~
dered caps, or bright pink and blue fattin
head-drefles, with ermine or fable fronts, a
heavy gold taflel hanging low down from the

left

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 319

left ear, and no powder; which gives a girlifh
look, and reminded me of a fafhion our lower
tradefmen in London had about fifteen or
eighteen years ago, of drefling their daugh-
ters, from nine to twelve years old, in pufied
black fattin caps, with a long ear hanging
down on one fide. It is a becoming mode
enough as the women wear it here, but gives
no idea of cleanlinefs; and I fuppofe that
whilft finery retains its power of ftriking, de-
licacy keeps her diftance, nor attempts to
come in play till the other has failed of its
effet. Ladies drefs here very richly, as in-
deed I expected to find them, and csloured
filk ftockings are worn as they were in Eng-
land till the days of the Spetator:—“ Thrift,
thrift, Horatio; as Hamlet obferves; for our
expences in Great Britain are infinitely in-
creafed by our advancement from fplendor to
neatnefs.

Here every thing feems at leaft five cen-
turies behind-hand, and religion has not pu-
rified itfelf the leaft in the world fince the
days of its early ftruggle; for here Hufs
preached, and here Jerome, known by the
name of Jerome of Prague, firft began to
project the {cheme of a future reformation,

The

320 OBSERVATIONS IN A

The Bohemians had indeed been long before
that time indulged by the Popes with permif=
fion to receive the cup in the facrament, a fa~
vour granted no one elfe; and of that no no-
tice was ever taken, till further fteps were
made for the obtaining many alterations that
have crept in fince that time in other nations,
not fo hafty to do by violence what will one
day be done of themfelves without any vio=
lence at all.

I afked to fee fome Proteftant meeting-
houfes, and was introduced to a very pleafing=
mannered Livornefe, who fpoke {weet Italian,
and ygas minifter to a little place of worfhip
which could not have contained two hundred
people at the moft; in fact his flock were all
foldiers, he faid. Not a perfon who could
keep a fhop was to be found of our perfuafion,
for was Lutheranifm half fo much detefted
even in Italy, he faid. Though I remember
the boys hooting us at Tivoli too, and calling
our Englifh Gentlemen, Monfiewr Dannato.

The library does not feem ancient, but the
grave perfon who fhewed it {poke very indif-
ferent French, fo that I could better truft my
eyes than my ears; this want of language is

terrible !—A celeftial globe moving by clock-
3 work

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 321

work concealed within, and fhewing the
fun’s place upon the ecliptic very exadlly,
detained our attention agreeably; and I ob-
ferved a polyglot bible printed at London in
Cromwell’s time, with a compliment to him
in the preface, which they have expunged in
fucceeding editions. A miffal too was curious
enough from its being decorated with fome
fingular illuminations upon one leaf; at the
top of the page a figure of Wickliffe is feen,
ftriking the flint and fteel: under him, in an-
other {mall compartment, Jerome of Prague
blowing tinder to make his ¢orch kindle;
below him again down the fame fide, Martin
Luther, the flambeau well lichted and blazing
in his hand; at the bottom of the page poor
John Hufs, betrayed by the Emperor who
promifed him protection, aid burning alive at
a flake, to the apparent fatisfaGtion of the
charitable fathers affembled at the council of
Conftance. Another curiofity fhould be re-
membered ; the manufcript letter from Zila,
the famous Proteftant general who headed the
revolters in’ 14.20; I was amazed to fee in
how elegant an Italian hand it was written ;’ °
the librarian faid comically enough—* dy, ay,

Vot. Il. as it

322 OBSERVATIONS IN A

it begins all about the fear of God, ce. ; thofe

fellows,” continued he, “ you know, are al-
ways fure to be canters !”

The reigning fovereign has made few
changes in church matters here, except that
which was become almoft indifpenfable, the
refolution to have mafs faid only at one altar,
inftead of many at a time; the contrary
practice does certainly difturb devotion, and
produce unavoidable indecorums, as no one

can tell what he turns his back upon, while

the bell rings in io many places of a large
church at once, and fo many different func-
tions are going forward, that people’s atten-
tion muft almoft neceflarily be diftraGted.

The eating here is incomparable; I never
faw fuch poultry even at London or Bath,
and there is a plenty of game that amazes
one; no inn fo wretched but you have a

pheafant for your fupper, and often partridge,

foup. The fith is carried about the ftreets in
fo elegant a ftyle it tempts one; a very large
round bathing-tub, as we fhould call it, fet
barrow-wife on two not very low wheels, is
eafily pufhed along by one man, though full
of the moft pellucid water, in which the carp,

tench,

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 333

tench, and eels, are all leaping alive, to a fize
and perfeCtion I am afhamed to relate; but
the tench of four and five pounds weight have
a richnefs and flavour one had no notion of
till we arrived at Vienna, and they are the
fame here.

How trade ftands or moves in thefe coun-
tries I cannot tell; there is great rigour fhewn _
at the.cuftom-houfe ; but till the fhopkeepers
learn to keep their doors open at leaft for the
whole of the fhort days, not fhut them up fo
and go to fleep at one or two o'clock for a
couple of hours, [ think they do not deferve
to be difturbed by cuftomers who bring ready
money. ‘To-morrow (30th November 1786)
we fet out, wrapped in good furs and flan-
nels, for

Y2 DRESDEN;

324 OBSERVATIONS IN A

DR ES DEN;

WHITHER we arrive fafe this 4th of
December,—

A wond’rous token
Of Heav’n’s kind care, with bones unbroken!

As the ingenious Soame fenyns fays of a lefs
hazardous drive in a lefs barbarous country I
hope: but really to Englifh paffengers in
Englith carriages, the read from Prague hither
is too bad to think on; while nothing literally
impels one forward except the impoflibility of
going back. Lady Mary Wortley fays, her
hufband and poflillions flept upon the pre-
eipices between Lowofitz and Auffig; but
furely the way muft have been much better
then, as all the opium in both would fearce
have ftupefied their apprehenfions now, when
a fall into the Elbe muft either have inter-
rupted or finifhed their nap; becaufe our
coach was held up every ftep of the journey

by

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 325

by men’s hands, while we walked at the bot-
tom about feven miles by the river’s fide, fuf-
fering nothing but a little fatigue, and enjoy-
ing the moft cloudlefs beautiful weather ever
feen. The Elbe is here as wide I think as
the Severn at Gloucefter, and rolls through
‘the moft varied and elegant land{cape pofhble,
not inferior to that which adorns the fides of
the little Dart in Devonthire, but on a greater
feale; every hill crowned with fome wood,
or ornamented by fome caftle.

As foon as we arrived, tired and hungry, at
Auffig, we put our fhattered coach on board
a bark, and floated her down to Drefden ;
whither we drove forward in the little carts
of the country, calle;l chaifes, but very rough
and with no fprings, as our very old-fafhioned
curticles were about the year 1750. ‘The
brightnefs of the weather made even fuch a
drive delightful though, arfl the millions of
geefe on and off the river gave animation to
‘the views, and accounted for the frequency of
thofe foft downy feather-beds, which footh
our cares and relieve our fatigue fo comfort-
ably every night. Hares will fcarce move
from near the carriage wheels, fo little appre-
henfive are they of offence; and the partridges

¥3 run

326 OBSERVATIONS IN A

run before one fo, it is quite amufing to look
at them. The trout in thefe great rivers are
neither large nor red: I have never feen trout
worth catching fince I left England ; the river
at Rickman{worth produces (one fhould like
to know why) that fith in far higher perfec
tion than it can be found in any other ftream
perhaps in Europe.

The being ferved at every inn, fince we
came into Saxony, upon Drefden china, gives
one an odd feel fomehow; but here at the
Hotel de Pologne there is every thing one can
with, and ferved in fo grand a ftyle, that I
queftion whether any Englifh inn or tavern
can compare with it; fo elegantly fine is the
linen, fo beautiful the porcelaine of which
every the meaneft utenfil is made; and if the
waiter did not appear before one drefled like
Abel Drugger with a green cloth apron, and
did not his entrance always fill the room with
a ftrong fcent of tobacco, I fhould think my-
felf at home again almoft. This really does
feem a very charming town; the ftreets well
built and fpacious ; the fhops full of goods,
and the people willing to fhew them ; and if
they do cut all their wood before their own
doors, why there is room to pafs here without

12 brawling

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 327

brawling and bones-breaking, which difgufts
one fo at Vienna; it feems lighter too here
than there; I cannot tell why, but every
thing looks clean and comfortable, and one
feels /o muci at home. I hate prejudice; no-
thing is fo ftupid, nothing fo furea mark of a
narrow mind: yet who can be fure that the
fight of a Lutheran town does not afford in
itfelf an honeft pleafure to one who has lived
fo long, though very happily, under my Lord
Peter’s protection?

Here Brother Martin has all precedence
paid Jim; for though the court are Ro-
manifts, their {plendid church here is called
only a chapel, and they are not permitted to
ring the bell, a privilege the Lutherans feem
much attached to, for nothing can equal the
noife of our bells on a Sunday morning at
Drefden.

The architecture is truly nideous, but no
ornaments are fpared; and the church of
Notre Dame here is very magnificent. The
china fteeples all over the country are the
oddeft things in the world; fpires of blue
er green porcelaine tiles glittering in the fun
have a ftrange effe@. But nothing can afford
a ftronger proof that crucifixes, Madonnas,

Y 4 and

328 OBSERVATIONS IN A

and faints, need not be driven out of churches
for fear they fhould be worthipped, than the
Lutherans admifhon of them into theirs; for
no people can be further removed from idol-
atry, or better inftru@ed in the Chriftian re-
ligion, than the common peaple. of this town;
where a decent obfervation of the fabbath
ftruck me with moft confolatory feelings, after
living at Paris, Rome, and Florence, where
it is confidered as a merry, not a holy day at
all! and though there feems nothing incon-
fiftent or offenfive in our rejoicing on the day
of our Lord’s refurreétion, yet if people are
encouraged to play, they will foon find out
that they may wort too, the fhops will fearcely,
be fhut, and all appearance of regard to the
fourth commandment will be done away.
The Lutherans really feem to obferve the
golden mean; they frequent their churches
all morning with a rigorous folemnity, no
carts or buiinefs of any fort goes forward in
the ftreets, public and private devotion takes
up the whole forenoon ; but they do not for-
bear to meet and dance after fix o'clock in
the evening, or play a fober game for fmall
fums ata friend’s houfe.

The

ll ee | ee

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 329

The fociety is tome very delightful; more
women than men though, and the women
moft agreeable ; exceedingly fenfible, well in-
formed, and willing to talk on every fubje&
of general importance, but religion or politics
feem the favourite themes, and are I believe
moft {tudied here ;—no wonder, the court and
city being of different fe@ts, each fteadily and
irrevocably fixed in a firm perfuafion that
their own is beft, caufes an inveftigation that
comes not in the head of people of other
countries ; and it is wonderful to fee even the
low. Romanifts fkilled in controyerfial points
to. a degree that would aftonith the people
neareft the Pope's perfon, I am well per-
fuaded.

The Saxons are excelflively loyal however,
and have the fenfe to love and honour their
fovereign no lefs for his difference of opinion
from theirs, than if all were of one mind;
yet knowing his principles, they watch with a
jealous eye againft encroachments, while the
amiable elector and eleétrefs ufe every tendex
method to induce their fubjeéts to embrace
their tenets, and ‘weary heaven with prayers
for their converfion, as if the people were

heathens.

330 OBSERVATIONS IN A

heathens. One great advantage refults from
this odd mixture of what fo fteadily refifts
uniting; it is the earneft defire each has to
juftify and recommend their notions by their
practice, fo that the inhabitants of Drefden
are among the moft moral, decent, thinking
people I have feen in my travels, or indeed
in my life. The general air and manner both
of place and people, puts one in mind of the
pretty clean parts of our London, about Queen
Square, Ormond Street, Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields,
and Southampton Row,

The bridge is beautiful, more elegant than
fhowy; the light iron railing is better in
fome refpects than a ftone baluftrade, and [
do not diflike the rule they make to them-,
felves of going on ome fide the way always,
and returning the other, to avoid a crowd and
confufion.

But it is time to talk about the pidture
gallery, where, cold as our weather is, I con-
trive to pafs three hours every day, my feet
well defended by ferlaches, a fort of cloth
clogs, very ufeful and commodious. And
now I have feen the Notte di Corregio, from
which almoft all pictures of effeé? have taken

their

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 231

their original idea; and here are three other
Corregios inimitable, invaluable, incompa-
rable. Surely this No/te might ftand fide by
fide with Raphael’s Transfiguration; and as
Sherlock fays that Shakefpear and Corneille
would look only on the Vefuvius fide of the
profpec&t at Naples, while Pope and Racine
would turn their heads towards Pofilippo ;
fo probably, while the two firft would faften
all their attention upon the Demoniac, the
two laft would confole their eyes with the
{weetnefs of Corregio’s Nativity. His little
Magdalen too fet round with jewels, itfelf
more precious than any or than all of them,
poffefles wonderful powers of attraétion ; it is
an hour before one can recolle& that there are
fome glorious Titians in the fame facade ; but
Caracci, who depends not on his colouring for
applaufe, lofes little by their vicinity, and
Pouffin is always equally refpeable. ‘The
Rembrandts are beyond credibility perfec of
their kind, and produce a moft powerful ef-
fe. His portrait of his own daughter has
neither equal nor price, I believe ; though the
girl has little dignity to be fure, and lefs grace
about her; but if to reprefent nature as fhe zs-
fuffices, this is the firft fingle figure in Europe

as

332 OBSERVATIONS IN A

as painting a “ve woman.—The Jupiter and
Ganymede is very droll indeed, and done
with very w7-Italian notions; but the eagle
_looks as if one might pluck his feathers ; it
is very life itfelfi—A candle-light Rubens here
is fhewn as a prodigious rarity; a Ruyfdael
as much refembling nature in 4s country, I
do believe, as Claude Lorraine ever painted
in bis. —The crayons Cupid of Mengs which
dazzles, and the portrait of old Parr by Van-
dycke which interefts one, are piftures which
call one to look at them again and again; and
the little Vanderwerfs kept in glafs cafes,
fmooth as ivory, and finifhed to perfection,
are all alike to be fure; one would wonder
that a man fhould never be weary of painting
fingle figures fo, and conftantly repeating the
fame idea; his eyes muft have had peculiar
firength too, to endure fuch trials, mine have
been pained enough this morning with only
leoking at his labours, and thofe of the in-
defatigable Denny. Let me refref them
with a Parnaflus of Giacomo Tintoret, who
puts all the colourifts to flight except Cor-

regio.
But here are two pictures which difplay
prodigious genius, by a mafter of whom. I
8 never

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 23

never heard any one fpeak, Ferdinand Bol,
who unites grace and dignity to the clear ob-
{cure of Rembrandt, whofe fcholar he was.
Jacob blefling Pharoah, painted by him, is
delightful ; and Jofeph’s expreflions while he
prefents his father, full of affeCtionate partial-
ity and fond regard for the old mau, heightens
his perfonal beauty ; while the king’s charac-
ter is happily managed too, and gives one
the higheft idea of the artift’s fkill. A Ma»
donna repofing in her flight to Egypt with a
fatigued look, her head fupported by her
hand, is elegant, and worthy of the Roman
or Bolognefe {chools; the landfcape is like
Rembrant. This gallery boafts an Egyptian ’
Mary. by Spagnolet, too terrifying to look long
at; and afmall picture by Lodovico Carracci
of the Virgin clafping her Son, who lies afleep
in her lap, while a vifion of his future cru-
cifixion fhewn her by angels in the fky,
agitates every charming feature of her face,
and caufes a fhrinking in her figure which
no power of art'can exceed.

As I fuffered fo much for the fake of feeing
this colle@ion, I have indulged myteif too long
in talking of it perhaps; but Garrick is dead,
and Siddons at a diftance, and fome. compen-

fation

334 OBSERVATIONS IN A

fation muft be had ; can any thing afford it
except the flatues of Rome, and the pictures
of Bologna? here ave a vaft many from thence
in this magnificent gallery. :

We had a concert made on purpofe for us
laft night by fome amiable friends: it was a
very good one. What I liked beft though,
was Mr. Tricklir’s new invention of keeping
aharpfichord always in tune; and it feems to
anfwer. I am no good mechanic, nor parti-
cularly fond of multiplying combinations ;
but the device of adding a thermometer to
fhew how much heat the ftrings will bear with-
out relaxation feems ingenious enough:
we had a vaft many experiments made, and
nobody could put the firings out of tune, or
even. break them, when his method was
adopted ; and it does not take up two minutes
in the operation.

We have feen the EleCtor’s treafures; and,
as a Frenchman would exprefs it, C’e/ icy:
guon voit des beaux diamants*! The yellow
brilliant ring is wwigue it feems, and valued
at an enormous fum; the green one is larger,
and fet tranfparent; it is not green like an
emerald, but pale and bright, and beyond

* Here’s the place to fee fine diamonds.

conception

JOURNEY- THROUGH GERMANY. 335

conception beautiful: hyacinths were new
to me here, their glorious colour dazzles one;
and here is a white diamond from the Great
Mogul’s empire, of unequalled perfection ;
befides an onyx large as a common dinner
plate, well known to be firft in the univerfe.
What majeftic treafures are thefe !—The fap-
phires and rubies beat thofe of Bavaria, but
the Ele@trefs’s pearls at Munich are unrivalled.
yet. Saxony is a very rich country in her
own bofom it feems; the agates and jafpers
produced here are excellent, nor are good
amethyfts wanting ; the topazes are pale and
fickly.

Nothing can be finer, or in its way
more tafteful, than a chimney-piece made for
the Eleétor, entirely from the manufacture
and produce of his own dominions ; that part
which we fhould form of marble is white
porcelane, with an exquifite bas-relief in the
middle copied from the antique ; its fides are
fet with Saxon gems, cameowile; and fuch
carnelions much amaze one in fo northern a
latitude ; the workmanfhip is beyond praife.
—I afked the gentleman who fhewed us the
cabinet of natural hiftory, why fuch richly-
coloured minerals, and even precious ftones,
were found in thefe climates; while every

7 animal

736 © OBSERVATIONS IN A

animal produét grows paler as it approaches
the pole?—“ Where phlogifton is frequent,”
replied he, “ there is no danger of the tint
being too lightly beftowed’: our quantity of
iron herein Saxony, gives purple to the ame-
thyfts you admire ; and fee heré if thé rain-

bow-ftone of Labrador yields in’ glowing hue

to the productions of Mexico or Malabar.”—
The fpecimens here however were not as va
luable as the converfation of him who has the

care of them; but a plica Polonica took much

of my attention; the fize and weight of it was
enormous, its length four yards and a half;
the perfon who was killed by its growth was
a Politi lady of quality well known in King
Auguftus’s court; it is avery flrange anda
very fhocking thing!

Our library here is new and not eminently
well flocked; but it'is too cold weather now
to ftand long looking at rarities. The firft
Reformation bible publifhed by Luther him+
felf, with a portrait of the firft Proteftant
Kleftor, is however too curious and intereft-
ing to be neglected; in froft and fhow fuch
fights might warm a heart well difpofed to fee
‘fe word of God difleminated, which had
lain'too long locked up by ignorance and in-

tereft

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 337

tereft united. Here is a book too, which
how it efcaped Pinelli I know not, a Venetian.
tranilation of the holy feriptures a Gructoli,
the date 1592. King Auguftus’s maps pleafe
one from their coftlinefs; the Eleétor has
twelve volumes of them; every letter is gold,
every city painted in miniature at the corners,
while arms, trophies, &c. adorn the whole,
to an incredible expence: they were engraved
on purpofe for his ufe; and that no other
Prince might ever have fuch again, he ordered
the plates to be broke.

Sunday, December 17. I am juft now re-
turned home from the Lutheran church of
Notre Dame; where, though the commu-
nicants do not kneel down like us, it is odd
to fay I never faw the facrament adminiftered
with fuch folemnity and pomp. Four priefts
ornamented with a large crofs on the back, a
multitude of lighted tapers blazing round
them, a uniformity in the drefs of all who
received, and mufic played in a flat third
fomehow vety impreffively, as they moved
round ina fort of proceflion, making a pro-
found reverence to the altar when they paffed
it, ftruck me extremely, who have been

Vor. II. Z lately

338 OBSERVATIONS IN A

lately accuftomed to fee very little ceremony
ufed on /uch occafions ; and I well remember
at Pifa in particular, that while we were look-
ing about the church for curiofity, one poor
woman knelt down juft by us, and a prieft
coming out adminiftered the facrament to her
alone, the whole finifhing in lefs than five
minutes I am perfuaded. I faid to Mr. Sey-
delman, when we had returned home to-
day, that the Saxons feemed to follow the
firft manner in reformation, our Anglicans
the fecond, and the Calvinifts the third: he
_underftood my allufion to the cant of con-
noiffeurfhip.

The fedan chairs here give the town a fort
of homeifh look; I had not been carried
in one fince I left Genoa, and it is fo com-
fortable this cold clear weather! A regular
market too, though not a fine one, has an
Englith air; and a faddle of mutton, or more
properly a chine, was a fight I had not con-
templated for two years and a half. The
Italians do call a cook ¢eologo, out of fport;
but I think he would be the propereft theo-
logian in good earneft, to tell why Catholics
and Proteftants fhould not cut their meat alike
at leaft, if they cannot agree in other points.
This

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 329

This is the firft town I have feen however,
where the butchers divided their beafts as we
do.

The arfenal we have walked over delighted
us but little: Saxons fhould fay to their
fwords, like Benvolio in the play, ‘* God fend
me no need of thee !’—for the Emperor is on
one fide of them, and the King of Pruffia on
the other. This laft is always mentioned as
a pacific prince though ; and the firft has fo
much to do and to think of, I hope he will
forget Drefden, and fuffer them to poflefs their
fine territory and gems in perfect peace and
quietnefs. One thing however was odd and
pretty, and worth remarking, That at Rome
there was an arfenal in the church—I mean
belonging to it; and here there is a church in
the arfenal.

The bombardment of this pretty town by
their active neighbour Frederic; the fweet
Ele@trefs’s death in confequence of the per-
fonal mortifications fhe received during that
dreadful fiege ; the embarkation of the trea-
fures to fend them fafe away by water; and
the various diftrefles fuffered by this city in the
time of that great war ;—make much of our
converfation, and that converfation is intereft-

LZ 2 ing.

340 OBSERVATIONS IN A:

ing. I only wonder they have fo quickly
recovered a blow ftruck fo hard.

The gaiety and good-humour of the court
are much defired by the Saxons, who have a
moft lofty notion of princes, and repeat all’
they fay, and all that is faid of them, with a
moft venerating affe@tion. I fee no national
partiality to England however, as in many
other parts of Europe, though our religions
are fo nearly allied: and here is a fpirit of
fubordination beyond what I have yet been
witnefs to—an aunt kiffing the hand of her
own niece (a baby not fix years old), and
calling her “ ma chere comteffe !’—carried it
as high [I think as it can be carried.

The environs of Drefden are happily dif-
pofed, for though it is deep winter we have
had fearcely any {now, and the horizon is very
clear, fo that one may be a tolerable judge of
the profpects. Our river Elbe is truly ma-
jeftic, and the great iflands of ice floating
down it have a fine appearance.

They do not double their fafh-windows as
at Vienna, but there is lefs wind to keep out.
In every place people have a trick of lament-
ing, and there are two themes of lamentation

eer | univerfal

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 341

univerfal for aught I fee—the weather and
the poor. I fee no beggars here, and feel no
rain,—but hear heavy complaints of both.
Crying the hour in the night as at London
pleafed me much ; why the ceremony is ac-
companied by the found of a horn, nobody
feems able to tell. The march of foldiers
morning and night to mufic through the
ftreets is likewife agreeable, and gives ideas
of fecurity; but driving great heavy wag-
gons up ai‘u down, with two horfes a-breaft,
like a chaife in England, and a poftillion upon
one of them, is ~ery droll to leok at. Ordi-
nary fellows too in the Elector’s livery (blue
and yellow) would feem ftrange, but that as
foon as Dover is left behind every man feems
to belong to fome other man, and no man to
himfelf. The Emperor’s livery is very hand-
fome, but I do not admire ¢his. A cuftom of
fifteen or twenty grave-looking men, dreffed
like counfellors in Weftminfter Hall, with
half a dozen boys in their company for /o-
pranos, {inging counterpoint under one’s win-
dow, has an odd effect; they are confra-
ternities of people I am told, who live ina fort
of community together, are maintained by

Z 3 contri-

— ere Se

342 OBSERVATIONS IN A

contributing friends, and taught mufic at their
expence; fo in order to accomplifh them-
felves, and fhew how well they are accom-
plifthed, this curious contrivance is adopted.
Every Sunday we hear them again in the
church belonging to the parifh that maintains
them. A proceflion of bakers too is a droll
oddity, but fhews that where there is much
leifure for the common people, fome cheap
amufement muft be found: two of thefe
bakers fight at the corner of every ftreet for
precedence, which by this means often changes
hands; .yet does not the conquered baker
fhew any figns of fhame or depreflion, nor
does the conteft laft long, or prove interefting.
I fuppofe they have fettled all the battles be-
forehand: no meaning feemed to be annexed
either by performers or fpectators to the
fhow ; we could make little diverfion out of

- it, but have no doubt of its being an old fu-

perftition.

On Chriftmas eve I went to Santa Sophia’s
ehurch, and heard a famous preacher; his
manner was energetic, and he kept an hour-
glafs by him, finifhing with ftrange abrupt-
nefs the moment it was expired. This was in

ufe

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 343

ufe among our diftant provinces as late as
Gay’s time; he mentions it in a line of his
paftorals, and fays—

He preach’d the hour-glafs in her praife quite out;

fpeaking of dead Blouzelind as I recollect.
It now feems a ftrange groffiereté, but refine-
ment follows hard upon the heels of reform-
ation.

There is an agreeable fancy here, which
one has always heard of, but never feen:
perhaps ; the notion of calling together a do-
zen pretty children to receive prefents upon
Chriftmas eve. The cuftom is exceedingly
amiable in itfelf, and gives befide a pleafing
pretext for parents and lations to meet, and
while away the time till fupper in reciprocat-
ing carefles with their babies, and rejoicing in
that fpecies of happinefs (the pureft of all
perhaps) which childhood alone’ can either
receive or beftow. I was invited to an ex-
hibition of this fort, and for fome time faw
little preparation for pleafure, except the fight
of fourteen or fifteen well-drefled little crea-
tures, all under the age of twelve I think, and
more girls than boys: the company confifted
of three or four and twenty people ; all fpoke

La French,

344 OBSERVATIONS IN A

French, and I was directed to obferve how
the young ones watched for the opening of a
particular door; which however remained
fhut fo long, that I forgot it again, and had
begun to intereft myfelf in chat with my
neareft neighbour (no mother of courfe), when
the door flew wide, and the mafter of the
houfe announced the hour of felicity, fhewing
us an apartment gaily illuminated with co-
loured lamps; a fort of tree in grotto-work
adorned the middle, and the prefents were
arranged all round; dolls innumerable, va~
rioufly adjufted ; fine new clothes, fans, trin-
kets, work-bafkets, little efcritoires, purfes,
pocket-books, toys, dancing-fhoes,—every
thing. The children fkipped about, and ca~
pered with exultation;—“ My own mama!
my dear aunt! my fweet kind grandpapa !”—
refounded wherever we turned our heads;
TJ think it was the lovelieft little fhow imagin-
able, and am forry to know how defcription
mutt neceflarily wrong it: les etrennes de
Dre/de thall however remain indelibly fixed
in my memory. When the pretty dears had
appropriated and arranged their prefents, cake
and lemonade were brought to quiet their agi-

tated

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 345

tated {pirits, and all went home happy to bed.
Their fparkling eyes and rofy cheeks ferved
for our theme till fupper-time ; and I fat try-
ing, but in vain, to find a reafon why pater-
nal affection appears fo much warmer always ~
in Proteftant countries, and filial piety in
thofe which remain firm to the church of
Rome.

We returned home to our inn exceedingly
well amufed ; the fupper had been magnificent,
and the preceding faft gave it additional relith.
I now tremble with apprehenfion however left
the thow of yefterday was too fplendid : for if
the mothers begin once to vie with each other
whofe gifts fhall be grandeft, or if once the
friend at whofe houfe the treat is prepared
produces a more coftly entertainment than his
neighbours have hitherto contented themfelves
with giving, this innocent and even praife-
worthy paftime will foon {well into expenfive
juxury, and burft from having been poifoned
by the corroding touch of malice and of envy.

Our Saxons however feemed_ well-bred,
airy, and agreeable in laft night’s hour of fefti-
vity ; and could I have fancied their gaiety
quite natural like that of Venice or Verona, I

might

34.6 OBSERVATIONS IN A

might perhaps have caught the fweet infetion,
and felt difpofed to merriment myfelf; but
much of this was ftudied mirth one faw, and
pleafure upon principle, as in our own ifland ;
which, though more elegant, is lefs attraGtive.
It is difficult to catch the contagion of artificial
hilarity, and a celebrated furgeon once told
me, that one might live with fafety at Sutton-
houfe among the inoculated patients, without
ever taking the diforder, unlefs the operation

were regularly performed upon one’s felf.
Well! we mutt fhortly quit this very com-
fortable refting-place, and leave a town more
like our own than any I have yet feen; where,
however, the drefles, of ordinary women I
mean, are extraordinary enough, each when
fhe is made up for fhow wearing a rich old-
fafhioned brocade cloke lined with green
luteftring, and edged round with narrow fur.
This is univerfal. Her neat black love-hood
however is not fo ugly as the man’s bright
yellow brafs comb, ftuck regularly in all their
heads of long ftraight hair who are not peo- |
ple of fathion; and no powder is ever ufed
among the Lutherans here in Saxony I fee,
except by gentlemen and ladies, who often
take

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 347

take all theirs out when they go to church,
from fome odd principle of devotion. It is
very pretty though to fee the little clean-faced
lads and wenches running to fehool fo ina
morning at every proteftant town, with the
grammar and teftament under their arm,
while every the meaneft houfe has a folio bi-
ble in it, and all the people of the loweft
ranks can read it.

On this 1f of January 1787, I may boaft
of having vifited lord Peter, Jack, and Martin,
all in the courfe of one day. Hearing Monf.
Dumarre preach to the French Huguenots in
the morning, attending the eftablifhed church
at Notre Dame at noon, and going to the
Eleétor’s truly-magnificent place of worfhip at
night, where Haffe’s Te Deum was fung, and
executed with prodigious regularity and pomp,
over againft an altar decorated with well-em-
ployed fplendour, exhibiting zeal for God's
houfe, animated by elegant tafte, and encou-
raged by royal prefence ;

While from the cenfer clouds of fragrance roll,
And fwelling organs lift the rifing foul.

4. I ftudied

348 OBSERVATIONS IN A

I ftudied then to keep my mind, I hope
kept it free from narrow and from vulgar pre=
judice, defirous only of feeing the three prin-
cipal feéts of Chriftians adoring their Redeemer,
each in the way they think moft likely to
pleafe him ; nor will I mention which method
had the moft immediate effe&t on me; but this
I faw, that beneath

Such plain roofs as piety could raife,
Made vocal only by our maker’s praife,

Monfieur Dumarre produced from his peace-~
ful auditors more tears of gratitude and
tendernefs in true remembrance of the facred
feafon, than were fhed at either of the other
churches. Indeed the fublime and pathetic
fimplicity of the place, the truly-touching
rhetoric of the preacher, his ftory a fad one;
while his perfecuted family were forced to fly
their native country, driven thence by the ri-
gour of Romifh feverity, and his life exa@ly
correfponding to the purity of that doftrine he
teaches : his tones of voice, his tranquillity of
manners,

His plainnefs moves men nore than eloquence,
And te his flock, joy be the confequence !

The

a

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 349

The eftablifhed - fect here—Lutherani/m,
keeps almoft the exact medium between the
other two, though their places of worfhip ftrike
me as fomething more theatrical than one
could with; very ftately they are certainly,
and very impofing. As few people however
are fond of a middle ftate, as here is prodi-
gious encouragement given by the court to
Romanifts, and full toleration from the ftate
to the difciples of John Calvin, I wonder
more members of the national church do not
quit her communion for that of one of thefe
chapels, which however owe their very ex-
iftence in Saxony to that truly chriftian and
catholick fpirit of Rete poffeffed by
Martin alone.

We have recovered ourfelves now from all
fatigues; our coach and our fpirits are once
more repaired, and ready to fet out for

BERLIN.

350 OBSERVATIONS IN A

B. Bo/Redy, LNs

Tue road hither is all a heavy fand, cut
through vaft forefts of ever-green timber, but
not beautiful like thofe of Bavaria, rather te-
dious, flat, and triftful: to encreafe which
fenfations, and make them more grievous to
us, our fervants complained bitterly of the laft
long frofty night, which we {pent wholly in
the carriage till it brought us here, where the
man of the houfe, a bad one enough indeed,
AIpeaks as good Englifh as I do, and has lived
long in London. Iam not much enchanted
with this place however. Dean Swift faid, that
a good ftyle was only proper words in proper
places; and if a good city is to be judged of
in the fame way, perhaps Berlin may obtain
the firft place, which one would not on an
immediate glance think it likely to deferve ; as
a mere refidence however, it will be difficult to
find a finer.

He who fighs for the happy union of fitua-
tion, climate, fertility, and grandeur, will

think

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 351

think Genoa tranfcends all that even a warm
imagination can wifh. If witha very, very
little lefs degree of pofitive beauty, he feels
himfelf chiefly affe@ted by a number of Na-
ture’s moft interefling features, finely, and
even philofophically arranged; Nafiles is the
town that can afford him moft matter both of
folemn and pleafing fpeculation.

If ruins of priftine fplendour, folid proofs
of univerfal dominion, ovce, nay fqwice enjoy-
ed: with the view of temporal power crufhed
by its own weight, folicits his curiofity.—It
will be amply gratified at Rome; where all that
modern magnificence can perform, is added
to all that ancient empire has left behind.
Romantic ideas of Armida’s palace, fancied
fcenes of perennial pleafure, and magical
images of ever varying delight, will be beftreal-
ized at {miling Vewice of any place; but ifa
city may be called perfect in proportion to its
external convenience, if making many houfes
to hold many people, keeping infeCtion away
by cleanlinefs, and enfuring fecurity againft
fire by a nice feparation of almoft every
building from almoft every other ; if unifor-
mity of appearance can compenfate for ele-

gance

352 OBSERVATIONS IN A

gance of architecture, and {pace make amends

for beauty, Berlin certainly deferves to be

feen,and he who planned it, to be highly com=
mended. ‘The whole looks at its worft now ;
all the churches are in mourning, fo are the
coaches: no theatre is open, and no mufic
heard, except now and then a melancholy
German organ droning its dull round of tunes
under one’s window, without even the Lon-
don accompaniment of a hoarfe voice crying
Woolfleet oyfters.’ Come! Berlin can boaft an
arfenal capable of containing arms for two
hundred and fifty thoufand men The con-
tempt of decoration for a place deftined to teal
ufe feemed refpectable in itfelf, and charac-
teriftic of its founder. No columns of guns
or capitals of piftols, neatly placed, are to be
feen here. A vaft, large, clean, cold-looking
room, with fwords and mufkets laid up only
that they may be taken down, is all one has to
look at in Frederick’s preparations for attack
or defence. :
In accumulation of ornaments one hopes to
find elegance, and in rejeGion of fuperfluity
there is dignity of fentiment; but nothing can
excufe a fovereign prince for keeping as cu-
riofities

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 353

riofities worthy a traveller’s attention, a heap
of trumpery fit to furnifh out the fhop ofa
Weftminfter pawnbroker. Our cabinet of
rarities here is literally no better than twenty
old country gentlemen’s feats, fituated in the
diftant provinces of England, fhew to the fer-
vants of a neighbouring family upon a Chrift-
mas vifit, when the houfekeeper is in good
humour, and, gently wiping the duft off my
date lady's mother’s avaber-boxes, produces
forth the wax figures of my lord John and
my lord Robert when dadies. For this pitia-
ble exhibition, fhips cut in paper, and faints
carved in wood, we paid half a guinea each ;
not gratuity to the perfon who has them in
charge, but tax impofed by the government.
Every houfe here is obliged to maintain fo
many foldiers, excepting fuch and fuch only
who have the word free written over their
doors ; here feem to be no people in the town
almoft except foldiers though; fo they na-
turally command whatever is to be had. Moft
nations begin and end with a military domi-
nion, as red is commonly the firft and laft co-
lour obtained by the chymift in his various ex-
periments upon artificial tints. This ftate is

Vor. II, Aa yet

354 OBSERVATIONS IN A

yet young, and many things in it not quite
come to their full growth, fo we muft not be
rigorous in our judgments. I have feen the
library, in which we were for the firft time
fhewn what is confidently /aid to be an /Ethio-
pian manufcript, and fuch it certainly may be
for aught I know. What interefted me much
more was our Tonfon’s Cefar, a book re-
markable for having been written by the firft
hero and general in the world perhaps, dedi-
cated to the fecond, and poffeffed by the
third. Here is an exceeding perfect collec-
tion of all Hogarth’s prints.

This city appears to be a very wholefome
‘one; the houfes are not high to confine the
air between them, or drive it forward in cur-
rents upon the principle of Paris or Vienna ;
the ftreets are few, but long, ftraight, and
wide ; ground has not been {pared in its con-
ftru€tion, which feems a moft judicious one ;
and with this well-earned praifeI am moft
willing to quit it. It is the firft place of any
confequence Ihave felt in a hurry to run away
from ; for till now there have been /ome at-
tractions in every town ; fomething that com-
manded veneration or invited fondneis ; fome-

thing

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 355
thing pleaiing in its fociety, or inftructive in
its hiftory. It would however be fullen
enough to feel no agreeable fenfation in feeing
this child of the prefent century come to age
fo: the tomb of its author is the object of our
prefent curiofity, which will be gratified to-
morrow.

Ou fontilsdonc, ces foudres de guerre,
Qui faifoient trembler Punivers ?

Ils ne font plus qu’un peu de terre,
Reftes, qu’ont epargnis les vers*.

* What are they after all their pains,
Thefe thunderbolts of war?
Mere caput mortuum that remains
Which worms vouchfafe to fpare.

356 OBSERVATIONS IN A

P°OwL SL AD Ae we

Awnp now, if Berlin wants tafte and magni~
ficence, here’s Potzdam built. on purpofe, £
believe, to fhew that even with both a place
may be very difmal and very difagreeable. The
commoneft buildings in this city look like the
beft fide of Grofvenor-fquare in London, or
Queen’s-fquare at Bath. I have not feen a
ftreet fo narrow as Oxford Road, but many
here are much wider, with canals up the mid-
dle, and a row of trees planted on each fide, a
pravel walk near the water for foot paflen-
gers, inftead of a ¢rottoir by the fide of the
houfes. Every dwelling is ornamented to a
degree of profufion; but to one’s queftion of,
“© Who lives in thefe palaces?” one hears that
they are all empty fpace, or only occupied by
goods never wanted, or corn there is nobody
to feed with: this amazes one; and in fact
here are no inhabitants of dignity at all pro-
portioned to the refidences provided for them ;
fo that when one fees the copies of antique

8 bas~

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 357

bas-reliefs, in no bad f{culpture, decorating the
doors whence dangle a fhoulder of mutton,
or a fhoemaker’s laft, it either fhocks one or
makes one laugh, like the old Bartholomew
trick of putting a baby’s face upon an old
man’s fhoulders, or flicking a king’s crown
upon a peafant’s head.

The churches are very fine on the outfide,
but f{trangely plain within: that, however, where
the royal body repofes looked folemn and
ftately in its mourning drefs. Black velvet,
with filver fringe and taffels very rich and
heavy, hung over the pulpit, family feat, &c.
and every thing ftruck one with an air of me-
‘lancholy dignity. ‘The king of Pruffia’s corpfe,
no longer animated by ambition, refts quietly
in an unornamented folid filver coffin, placed in
a fort of clofet above ground, the door to
which opens clofe to the pulpit’s feet, and
fhews the narrow fpace which now holds his
body, befide that of his father, and the great
eletor, as he is ftill juftly called.

My fepuichral tour is now nearly finifhed :
we have in the courfe of this journey feen the
laft remains of many a celebrated mortal.
Virgil, Raphael, Ariofto, Scipio, Galileo,
Petrarch, Carlo Borromeo, and the king of

Aa 3 Pruffia.

358 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Prufia. How different each from other in
his life! Mow like each other now! But

Tous ces morts ont vecu ; toi qui lis—tu mourras :
L’inftant fatal approche, et tu n’y penfe pas*.

I could have wifhed before my return to
have paufed a moment on the tomb of Me-
lan&thon, who might be faid to have united
in himfelf their feparate perfe€tions. Cou-
rage, genius, moderation, piety! perfever-
ing fteadinefs in the right way himfelf; can-
did acknowledgment of merit, even in hisene-
mies, where he faw their intentions right,
though he thought their tenets and their con-
duét wrong. But we are removed far from
the dwelling of the peacemaker ; let us at leaft
look at the palace, now we have examined the
coffin of him whofe ftudy and delight was war.

Sans Souci is furely an elegantly chofen
fpot, its archite€ture excellent, its furniture
rich yet delicate, the gardens very happily
difpofed, the profpect from its windows agree-
able, the pictures within an admirable collec~

* All thefe have liv’d; ye too who read muft die :
Hafte and be wife, the fateful minutes fly,

ite) tion.

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 359

tion. ‘A hall built in imitation of the Colonna
gallery fhews Frederick’s tafte at once and li-
beral fpirit: the front feems borrowed from
fomething at St. Peter’s; all is beautiful; the
gilding of his long-room makes a very fudden
and ftrong effet, nor are marbles of immenfe
value wanting ; here is a fpecimen of every
thing I think, and two agate tables of prodi-
gious fize and beauty. The Silefian chryfo-
paz, and Carolina marble of a bright f{carlet
colour, quite luminous like the feathers of a
fighting cock, ftruck me with their fingular
and fplendid appearance. Rubens’s merit was
not new tome, I hope; yet here is a refurrec-
tion of Lazarus, in which he has been lavifh
of it. The compofition of this picture feems
to have been intended to furpafs every thing
put together by other artifis: its colouring
_glows like life.

The king’s town-houfe, however, is finer far
than this his villa was defigned to be; but 1
grew very tired walking over it: when one has
dragged through twenty-four rooms variouily
hung with pink and filver, green and gold, &c.
one grows cruelly weary with repeating the fame
ideas by drawling through forty-eight more.

Aa 4 I withed

360 OBSERVATIONS IN A

I wifhed to fee his own private living apart~
ments, and to mind with what books and
pictures he adorned the dreffing-room he al-
ways fate in: the firft were chiefly works of
Voltaire and Metaftafio—the laft were fmall
landfcapes of Albano and Watteau. At our
defire they fhewed us the little bed he flept,
the chairs he fate in familiarly. Suetonius in
French and Italian was the laft author he
looked into; they have made a mark at the
death of Auguftus, where he was reading
when the fame vifitant called on him, quite
unexpected by himfelf it feems, though all
his attendants were well aware of his ap-
proach. As he expired he faid, / give you @
vat deal of trouble. We faw the {pot he fate
in at the moment; for Frederick no more
died in his bed, than did the famous Flavius
Vefpafian ; his fervants wept as they repeated
the particulars, carefling while they fpoke
his favourite dogs, one of which, a terrier,
could hardly be prevailed upon to quit the
body. It ufed to amufe the king to fee them
frighted when he would take them to a long
room lined with French mirrors, which he
did now and then to laugh at the effect.

Every

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 361

Every thing at Potzdam fhews a man in
hafte to enjoy what he had laboured fo hard
to procure; nor did he ever refuse himfelf,
they fay, any gratification that could make
age lefs wearifome, or illnefs lefs afflictive.
He had much tafte of Englifh ingenuity—
combinations of converiience, and improve-
ments in mechanifm: his own writing-table,
however, was contrived by himfelf; it ftands
on four legs, one pair longer than the other
to make it flope; the covering is green velvet,
with a fquare hole for .the ftandifh to drop
in and not fpill the ink: I liked the device
exceedingly, but wondered he thought any
device worth his preference. His converfation
to his fervants was affable and even gay ; they
loved his perfon, it is plain, and half adore
his memory.

Such were the manners then, and fuch the
death, of the far-famed philofopher of Sans
Souci! And in truth, when he had fo often
fet all prefent and future happinefs to hazard,
it would have been inconfiftent not to haften
the enjoyment: nobody comes to inhabit his
fine town, however, which has much the look
of buildings in a ftage perfpective. Soldiers
only, and fuch as fell wares neceflary to fol-
diers,

362 OBSERVATIONS IN A

diers, were all the human creatures I could
fee here; nor are families, or travellers of any
fort indeed, better accommodated here than
at inns of lels pompous appearance on the
outlide.

For accommodations, however, I care but
little; I have now walked over the oldeft and
the youngeft cities in all Europe, and have
left each with fincere admiration of their con-
tents. Both are full of buildings and empty
of inhabitants, nor am I defirous to add to
the number in either. I was going to ftep
forward into fome room of the palace yefter-
day—*‘ Madam, come back this inftant,” ex-
claimed our Cicerone; ‘‘if that chamber is en-
tered, my head will be off my fhoulders in
three days time.” Another well attefted anec-
dote may be worth relating: A gentleman
with whom we paffed an agreeable evening at
Berlin, whofe lady invited to meet us what-
ever was moft charming in the town, told the
following ftory of a foldier who, being de-
firous of his body’s diffolution, but fearful of
his foul’s rufhing unprepared into eternity,
caught and murdered a fix months old baby ;
giving this ftrange account of his own feelings
on the occafion, and adding, that he did not

like

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 363

like to kill an adult, left his own impatience
of life’s infupportable torment might by that
means precipitate his neighbour to perdition ;
but that a baptized infant would be fure of
heaven, and he himfelf fhould gain time to
prepare for following it—“And, Lord!” faid my
informer, “ what reafoners this world has in it!”
The foldier was hanged fix weeks after the
dreadful crime was committed; he made a
very decent and penitential end.

On fuch faéts what obfervations or reflec-
tions can refult? I made none, but gave God
thanks that I was born a fubject of Great
Britain.

POTZDAM tro HANOVER.

On the 13th of January 1787 then we
quitted Potzdam, ftrongly impreffed by the
beauties of a town apparently fabricated by a
modern Cadmus, who, when all the foldiers
that he could raz/é were fallen in ba/tle for his
amufement, retired with the five that were
left, and built a fine city!

Branden-

364 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Brandenbourg was our next refting place,
and feemed to me to merit a longer flay init;
{ faw an old Runick figure in the ftreet, its
fize coloffal, and its compofition feemed black
bafalt ;. but of this I could obtain no account
for want of language, our fill recurring tor=
ment.—This place feems fuller of inhabitants
than the laft; but it is /o melancholy to have
no compenfation for the fatigues of a tedious
journey! and in thefe countries information
cannot be procured for travellers that do not
mean to refide, prefent letters, &c.; which
tafk we have at this feafon little tafte to renew.

Magdebourg makes a refpeGtable appear-
ance at a diftance, from the loftinefs of its
turrets ; one fees them at leaft four long hours
before the roads which lead to it permit one’s
approach; and the towers feem to retire be-
fore one, like Ulyffes’s fi@itious country raifed
to deceive him. Never was I fo weary in my
life as when we entered Magdebourg, where,
inftead of going out to fee fights as ufual, I
defired nothing fo fincerely as a hot fupper
and foft bed, which the inns of Germany ne~
ver fail to afford us in even elegant perfec-
tion. :

Our

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 68

Our linen too, fo beautifully, and I will add
fo unneceflarily fine! The king of Naples
probably never faw fuch fheets and table-cloths
as we have been comforted with here, not only
at Drefden, but every poft fince.

Magdebourg feems to have almoft all its
ftreets united by bridges; the Elbe divides
there into fo many branches, and none of them
{mall.

Helmftadt is a little place which affords few
images to the mind, and Brunfwick to mere
pafiengers, as we were, feemed to yield none
but fad ones. The houfes all of wood, even to
prince Ferdinand’s palace, and painted of a dull
olive colour with heavy penfile roofs, giving
the town a melancholy look; but we met
with young Englifhmen who commended the
fociety, and faid no. place could be gayer than
Brunfwick. This is among the reports one
wifhes to be true, and we are led the more
willingly to believe them.

Another delight which I enjoyed at this
‘city was, to find that every body in it, and
every body paffing through it, adored the
duchefs, whofe partial fondnefs, and tender
remembrance of her native country, juftly

endears

366 OBSERVATIONS IN A

endears her name to every fubject of Great
Britain. Her chapel is pretty; the garden,
where they faid the always walked two hours
every day, put me in mind of Gray’s-Inn
walks twenty or thirty years ago; they were
then very like it.

From thefe fcenes of folitude without re~
tirement, and of age without antiquity, I was
willing enough to be gone; but they would

fhew me one curiofity they faid, as I feemed,

to feel particular pleafure in {peaking of their
charming duchels. We followed, and were
fhewn her coffin! all in filver, finely carved,
chafed, engraved, what you will. ‘ Before
_ fhe is dead!” exclaimed I—“ Before fhe was
' even married, madam,” replied our Cicerone;
“* it is the very fineft ever made in Brunfwick;
we had it ready for her againft fhe came home
to us, and you fee the flate left vacant for
her age.” I was glad to drive forward now,
and flept at Peina; which, though in itfelf
a miferable place, exhibits one confolatory
fight for a Chriftian—the fight of toleration.
Here Romanifts, Lutherans, and Calvinifts,
live all affe€tionately and quietly together,
under the proteCtion of the bifhop of Pader-
borne ; and here I firft faw the king of Eng-

land’s

= lee mh ee

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 367

land’s livery upon the king of England’s fer-
vants fince I left home—‘And if they are rag-
ged youngfters who wear it,” faid I, “they are
my fellow-fubje&s, and glad am I to fee
them !”

The villages and churches hereabouts re-
femble thofe of Merionethfhire, only that not
a mountain rears its head at all—one valit,
wide, barren flat, through which roads that
no weather can render better than barely paf-
fable brought us at length to Hanover, which
ftands, as all thefe cities do in the north of
Germany, upon an immenfe plain, with a
thick wood of noble timber trees breaking
from time to time the almoft boundlefs void,
and relieving the eye, which is fatigued by
extent without any object to repofe upon, in
a manner [ can with difhculty comprehend,
much lefs explain; but the fight of a pafling
waggon, or diftant fpire, is a felicity feldom
found, though continually fought by me,
while travelling through thefe wide wafted
countries, where no idea is afforded to the
imagination, no image remitted to the mind,
but that of two armies encountering each
other, to difpute the plunder of fome place
already unable to feed its few inhabitants.

The

368 OBSERVATIONS IN A

The horfes however are exceedingly beauti=
ful; we were offered a pair of very fine ones for
only forty pounds. They would have run fuch
hazards getting home! ‘“* There are two waysto
chufe out of,” faid 1; “ if we purchafe them,
we fhall repent on it every day till we arrive in
London ; if we do not, we fhall repent on it
every day after we get there.” Such is life!
we did not buy the cattle.

The cleanlinefs of the windows, the man-
ner of paving and lighting the ftreets at Ha-
nover, put us in mind a little of fome country
towns in the remoter provinces of England ;
and there feems to be likewife a little glimpfe
of Britith manners, drefs, &c. breaking through
the common and natural fafhions of the
country. This was very pleafing to us, but
I wifhed the place grander; I do not very well
know why, but we had long counted on com-
forts here as at home, and I had formed ex-=
pectations of fomething much more magnifi«
cent than we found; though the Duke of
York’s refidence does give the town an air
of cheerfulnefs it {carce could fhew without
that advantage; and here are concerts and
balls, and efforts at being gay, which may
probably fucceed fometime. How did all

the

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 369

the talk however, and all the pamphlets, and
all the lamentations made by old King George’s
new fubje€ts, rufh into my mind, when I
recollected the loud, illiberal, and indecent
clamours made from the year 1720 to the year
1750, at leaft till the alarm given by the
Rebellion began to operate, and open people’s
eyes to the virtues of the reigning family ! for
till then, no topic had fo completely engrofled
both prefs and converfation, as the misfor-
tunes accruing to poor old England, from their
King’s defire of enriching his Electoral do-
minions, and feeding his favourite Hano-
verians with their good guineas, making fat the
objects of his partial tendernefs with their
beft treafures—in good time! Such ground-
lefs charges remind one of a ftory the famous
French wit Monfieur de Menage tells of his
mother and her maid, who, having wafted or
fold a pound of butter, laid the theft upon
the cat, perfifting fo violently that it had been
all devoured by the rapacious favourite, that
Madame de Menage faid, “ It’s very well;
we will weigh the cat, poor thing! and lec
the truth:” The fcales were produced, but
pufs could be found to weigh only three Mee
ters, after all her depredations.

Vox. II. Bb FROM

370 OBSERVATIONS IN A

From HANOVER to BRUSSELS.

TRAVELLING night and day through the
moft difmal country I ever yet beheld, brought
us at length to Munfter, where we had a good
‘inn again, and talked Englith. Well may
all our writers agree in celebrating the miferies
of Weftphalia! well may they, while the
wretched inhabitants, uniting poverty with
pride, live on their hogs, with their hogs, and
like their hogs, in mud-walled cottages, a
dozen of which together is called by courtefy
a village, furrounded by black heaths, and
wild uncultivated plains, over which the un-
refifted wind fweeps.with a velocity I never
yet was witnels to, and now and then, exaf-
perated perhaps by folitude, returns upon itfelf
in eddies terrible to look on. Well, the woes
of mortal man are chiefly his own fault; war
and ambition have depopulated the country,
which otherwife need not I believe be poor,
as here is capability enough, and the weather,

though

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 37

though ftormy, is not otherwife particularly
difagreeable. January is no mild month any
where; even Naples, fo proverbially delicious,
is noify enough with thunder and lightning ;
and the torrents of rain which often fall at
this feafon at Rome and Florence, make them
unpleafing enough. Nor do I believe that
the very few people one finds here are of a
lazy difpofition at all; but it is fo feldom that
one meets with the human face divine in this
Weftern fide of Germany, that one fcarce
knows what they are, but by report.

The town of Munfter is catholic I fee;
their cathedral heavily and clumfily adorned,
like the old Lutheran church called Santa
Sophia at Drefden. One pair of their filver
candlefticks however are eight feet high, and
exhibit more folidity than elegance. They
told us fomething about the ¢éhrce kings, who
muft have loft their way amazingly if ever
they wandered into Weftphalia, and deferved
to lofe their name of wz/e men too, I think.
We were likewife fhewn the fword worn by
St. Paul, they told us, and a backgammon
table preferved behind the high altar, I could
not for my life find out why ; at firft our inter-

Bbha2 preter

372 OBSERVATIONS IN A :

preter told us, that the man faid it had be-
longed to Fobn the Baptif?, but on further en-
guiry we underftood him that it was once
ufed by fome Anabaptifts; as that feemed no
lefs wild a reafon for keeping it there, than
the other feemed as an account of its original,
we came away uninformed.

Of the reafon why Hams are better here
than in any other part of Europe, it was not
{fo difficult to obtain the knowledge, and the
inquiry was much more ufeful.

Poor people here burn a vaft quantity of
very fine old oak in their cottages, which,
having no chimney, detain the fmoke a long
time before it makes its efcape out at the door.
This fmoke gives the peculiar flavour to that
bacon which hangs from the roof, already fat
with the produce of the fame tree growing
about thefe diftriéts in a plenty not to be be-
lieved. Indeed the fole decoration of this
devafted country is the large quantity of ma-
jeftic timber trees, almoft all oak, living to
fuch an age, and fpreading their broad arms
with fuch venerable dignity, that it is ¢hey
who appear the ancient pofleflors of the land,
who, in the true ftyle of Gothic fupremacy,

fuck

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 373

fuck all the nutriment of it to themfelves, only
fhaking off a few acorns to content the im-
mediate hunger of the animal race, which
here feems in a flate of great degeneracy in-
deed, compared to thofe haughty vegetables.’
This day I fawa fryar; the firft that has
crofled my fight fince we left the town of Mu-
nich in Bavaria. Onthe road to Duffeldorp one
fees the country mend at every ftep; but
even / can perceive the language harfher, the _
further one is removed from Hanover on
either fide: for Hanover, as Madame de Bi-
anconi told me at Drefden, is the Florence of
Germany; and the tongue {fpoken at that
town is fuppofed, and juftly, the criterion of
perfect Teut/ch.
The gallery of paintings here fhall delay
‘ us but two or three days; I am fo very weary
of living on the high roads of Zeuchland all
winter long! Gerard Dow’s delightful
mountebank ought, however, to have two of
thofe days devoted to him, and here is the
moft capital Teniers which the world has to
fhow. Jaques Jordaens never painted any
thing fo well as the feaft in this gallery, where
there are likewife fome wonderful Sckalkens ;
Bb3 befides

374 OBSERVATIONS IN A

befides Rembrandt’s portrait of himfelf much
out of repair, and old Franck’s Seven AGts of
Mercy varnifhed up, as well as the martyr-
doms reprefenting fome of the perfecutions in
early times of Chriftianity; thefe might be
called the Seven Acts of Cruelty—a duplicate
of the picture may be feen at Vienna. When
one has mentioned the Vanderwerfs, which
are all fifters, and the demi-divine Carlo Dolce
in the window, reprefenting the infant
Jefus with flowers, full of fweetnefs and in-
nocent expreffion, it will be time to talk of
the General Judgment, painted with aftonifh-
ing hardihood by Rubens, and which we
ftopt here chiefly to fee. The fecond Perfon
of the Trinity is truly fublime, and formed
upon an idea more worthy of him, at leaft
more correfpondent to the general ideas than
that in Cappella Seftini; where a beholder is
tempted to think on Julius Cefar fomehow,
jnftead of Jefus Chrift—a Conqueror, more

than a Saviour of mankind, .
St.Michael’s figure is incomparable; thofe of
Mofesand St. Peter happily imagined ; the {pirit
of compolition, the manner of grouping and
colouring, the general effect of the whole,
prodigious! I know not why he has fo fallen
below

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 375

below himfelf in the Madonna’s chara€ter ;
perhaps not imitating Tintoret’s lovely Virgin
in Paradife, he has done worfe for fear of
being fervile. Tintoret’s idea of her is fo very
poetical ! but thofe who fhewed it me at Ve-
nice faid the drawing was borrowed from
Guariento, I remember.

Who however except Rubens would have
thought fo juftly, fo liberally, fo wifely, about
the Negro drawn up to heaven by the angels?
who ftill retains the old terreftrial character, fo
far as to fhew a difpofition to laugh at ¢heir
fituation who on earth tormented him. When
all is faid, every body knows very well that
Michael Angelo’s picture on this fubje& is by
far the fineft; and that neither Rubens nor Tin-
toret ever pretended, or even hoped to be
thought as great artifts as he: but though Dante
is a fublimer poet than Taffo, and Milton a
writer of more eminence than Pope, ¢he/e laft
will have readers, reciters, and quoters, while
the others muft fit down contented with filent
veneration and acknowledged {uperiority.

This day we faw the Rhine—what rivers
thefe are ! and what enormous inhabitants they
do contain! a brace of bream,and eels of a mag=

Bb 4 nitude

375 OBSERVATIONS IN A

nitude and flavour very uncommon except in
Germany, were our fupper here. But the
manners begin I fee to fade away upon the
borders; our foft feather beds are left behind ;
men too, fometimes fad, nafty, ill-looked
fellows, come in one’s room to fweep, &c. and
light the fire in the ftove, which is now al-
ways made of lead, and the fumes are very
offenfive ; no more tight maids to be feen:
but we fhall get good roads; at Liege, down
in a dirty coal pit, the bad ones end I think ;
and that town may be faid to finifh all our
difficulties. After pafling through our laft
difagreeable refting-place then, one finds the
manners take a tint of France, and begins to
fee again what one has often feen before.
The forefts too are fairly left behind, but neat
agriculture, and comfortable cottages more than
fupply their lofs. Broom, juniper, every
Englifh fhrub, announce our proximity to Great
Britain, while pots of mazerion in flower at
the windows fhew that we are arrived ina
country where fpring is welcomed with cere=
mony, as well as received with delight. The
forwardneis of the feafon is indeed furprifing ;
though it freezes at night now and then, the
general feel of the air is very mild; willows

already

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 377

already give figns of refufcitation, while flights
of yellowhammers, a bird never obferved in
Italy I think, enliven the fields, and look as if
they expected food and felicity to be near.

Louvaine would have been a place well
worth ftopping at, they tell me; but we were
in hafte to finifh our journey and arrive at

~B.R.U_S. S.E&. S,

Every ftep towards this comfortable city
lies through a country too well known to need
defeription, and too beautiful to be ever de-
feribed as it deferves. Les Vues de Flandres
are bought by the Englith, admired by the
Italians, and even efteemed by the French,
who like few things out of their own nation;
but thefe places once belonged to Louis Qua-
torze, and the language has taken. fuch root
it will never more be eradicated. Here are
very fine pi€tures in many private hands; Mr.
Danot’s colle€tion does not want me to cele
brate its merits; and here is a lovely park,

and

378 OBSERVATIONS IN A

and a pleafing coterie of Englifh, and a very
gay carnival as can be, people running about
the ftreets in crowds; but their theatre is a
vile one: after Italy, it will doubtlefs be diff-
cult to find mafques that can amufe, or theatres
that can ftrike one. But never did nation
poffefs a family more charming than that of
La Ducheffe D’ Arenberg, who, graced with
every accomplifhment of mind and perfon,
devotes her time and thoughts wholly to the
amufement of her amiable confort, calling
round them all which has any power of al-
leviating his diftrefsful condemnation to per-
petual darknefs, from an accident upon a
fhooting party that coft-him his fight about
fix or feven years ago. Mean time her arm
always guides, her elegant converfation always
foothes him; and either.from gaiete de ceur,
philofophical refolution to bear what heaven

-ordains without repining, or a kind defire of

correfponding with the Duchefs’s intentions,
he appears to lofe no pleafure himfelf, nor
power of pleafing others, by his misfortune ;
but dances, plays at cards, chats with his
Englith friends, and liftens delightedly (as
who does not?) when charming Countefs Cleri
fings to the harpfichord’s accompaninient,

with

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 379
with all Italian tafte, and all German exe-
cution. By the Duke D’Aremberg we were
introduced to Prince Albert of Saxony, and
the Princefle Gouvernante, whofe refemblance
to her Imperial brother is very ftriking ; her
hand however, fo eminently beautiful, is to
be kiffed no more ; the abolition of that cere-
mony has taken place in all the Emperor’s
family. The palace belonging to thefe princes
is fo entirely in the Englith tafte, with plea-
fure grounds, fhrubbery, lawn, and laid out
water, that I thought myfelf at home, not
becaufe of the polite attentions received, for
thofe I have found abroad, where no merits
of mine could poffibly have deferved, nor no
fervices have purchafed them. Spontaneous
kindnefs, and friendfhip refulting merely from
that innate worth that loves to energize its
own affe€tions on an object which fome cir-
cumftances had cafually rendered interefting,
are the lafting comforts I have derived from
a journey which has fhewn me much variety,
and imprefled me with an efteem of many
characters I have been both the happier and
the wifer for having known. Such were the
friends I left with regret, when, crofling the
Tyrolefe Alps, I fent my laft kind withes

13 back

:
|

380 OBSERVATIONS IN A

back to the dear ftate of Venice in a figh;
fuch too were my emotions, when we took
leave laft night at Lady Torrington’s; and
refolving to quit Bruffels to-morrow for Ant-
werp, determined to exchange the brilliant
converfation of a Boyle, for the glowing pen~
cil of a Rubens.

BINS Tage Wai, dite Ree,

Tuts is a difmal heavy looking town—/o
melancholy ! the Scheld fhut up! the grafs
growing in the ftreets! thofe ftreets fo empty
of inhabitants! and it was fo famous once.
Atuatum nobile Brabantia opidum in ripd Schal-
dis flu. Europe nationibus maxime frequenta-
tum. Sumptuofis tam privatis quam publicis

- nitet edificits*, fay the not very old books of

geography when {peaking of this once ftately
city ;
But trade’s proud empire {weeps to {wift decay,

As ocean heaves the labour’d mole away.
GOLDSMITH.

* Antwerp is a noble town of Brabant, fituated on
the banks of the Scheld; frequented by moft of the na~
tions in Europe, and fumptuous in its buildings both
public and private.

And

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 28:

And furely if the empire of Rome is a@tu--
ally fled away into air like a dream, the opu-
lence of Antwerp may well crumble to earth
like a clod. What defies time is genius; and
of that, many and glorious proofs are yet left
behind in this place. ‘The compofition of a
picture painted to adorn the altar under which
lies buried that which was mortal of its artift,
is beyond all meaner praife. The figure of St.
George might ftand by that of Corregio, and.
fuffer no diminution of one’s efteem. The
defcent from the crofs too!—Well! if Daniel
de Volterra’s is more elegantly pathetic, Ru-
bens has put zs pathos in a properer place.—
The bleffed Virgin Mary ought to be but the
fecond figure certainly in a fcene which repre-’
fents our almighty Saviour himfelf complet-:
ing the redemption ofall mankind. But here’
is another devotional piece, highly poetical,
almoft dramatic, reprefenting Chrift defcend-
ing in anger to confume a guilty world. The
slobe at a diftance low beneath his feet, his
pious mother proftrate before him, covering:
part of it with her robe, and deprecating the
divine wrath in a moft touching manner. | St..
Sebaftian fhewing his wounds with an air of
the tendereft fupplication; Carlo Borromzxo

8 befeeching

————————

TS

ee

==

ae

382 OBSERVATIONS IN A

befeeching in heaven for thofe fellow-creatures
he ceafed not loving or ferving while on earth 3
and St. Francis in the groupe, but furely ill-
chofen; as he who left the world, and planned
only his own falvation by retirement from its
cares and temptations, would be unlikely
enough to intreat for its longer continuance :
his drefs however, fo favourable to painters,
was the reafon he was pitched upon I truft, as
it affords a particularly happy contraft to the
cardinal’s robes of St. Carlo.

I will finith my refleGions upon painting
here, and apologize for their frequency only
by confefling my fondnefs for the art; and my
conviction, that had I faid nothing of that
art in a journey through Italy and Germany,
where fo much of every traveller’s attention is
led to mention it, I fhould have been juftly
blamed for affetation; while being cenfured
for impertinence difguits me lefs of the two.
What I have learned from the Italians is a
maxim more valuable than all my flock of
connoiffeurfhip : Che c’é in tutto il fuo bene, €
il fuo male—that there is much of evil and of
good in every thing: and the life of a traveller
evinces the truth of that pofition perhaps more

than

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 383

than any other. So perfuaded, we made a
bold endeavour to crofs the Scheld; but the
wind was fo outrageoufly high, no boat was
willing to venture till towards night : at that
hour “ Unus, et hic audax*,” as Leander fays,
‘offered his. fervice to convey us; but the
paflage of the Rhine had been fo rough be-
fore, that I felt by no means difpofed to face
danger again juft at the clofe of the battle,

When we find a difpofition to talk over our
adventures, the great ice iflands driving down
Rhenus ferow, as Seneca juftly calls it, and
threatening to run againft and deftroy our
awkward ill-contrived boat, may divert care
over a winter’s fire, fome evening in England,
by recollection of paft perils. I thought it a
dreadful one at the time; and have no tafte
to renew a like fcene for the fake of crofling
the Scheld, and arriving a very few moments
fooner than returning through Bruffels will
bring us—~a /a Place de

* One—and he a bold one.

LILLE;

384 OBSERVATIONS IN A

L Alea SEs

WHERE every thing appears to me to be
juft like England, at leaft juft by it; and
in fact four and twenty hours would carry us
thither with a fair wind: and now it really
does feel as if the journey were over; and
even in that fenfation, though there is fome
pleafure, there is fome pain too ;—the time
and the places are paft ;—and I have only left
to wifh, that my improvements of the one,
and my accounts of the others, were better ;
for though Mr. Sherlock comforts his fol-
lowers with the kind affertion, That if a hun-
dred men of parts travelled over Italy, and
each made a feparate book of what se faw and
obferved, a hundred excellent compofitions
might be made, of which no two fhould be
alike, yet all new, all refembling the original,
and all admirable of their kind.—One’s con-
ftantly-recurring fear is, left the readers fhould
cry out, with Juliet—

Yea, but all this did I know before!
How

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 325

How truly might they fay fo, did I mention
the oddity (for oddity it ftill is) in this town
of Lille, to fee dogs drawing in carts as beafts
of burden, and lying down in the market-
place when their work is done, to gnaw the
bones thrown them by their drivers: they are
of maftiff race feemingly, croffed by the bull-
dog, yet not quarrelfome at all. This is a
very awkward and barbarous practice however,
and, as far as I know, confined to this city ;
for in all others, people feem to have found
out, that horfes, afles, and oxen are the pro-
per creatures to draw wheel carriages—
except indeed at Vienna, where the ftreets are
fo very narrow, that the men refolve rather to
be harneffed than run over.

How fine I thought thefe churches thirteen
years ago, comes now thirteen times a-day
into my head; they are not fine at all; but
it was the firft time I had ever crofled the
channel, and I thought every thing a wonder,
and fancied we were arrived at the world’s
end almoft; fo differently do the felf-fame
places appear to the felf-fame people furrounded
by different circumftances! I now feel as if
we were at Canterbury. Was one to go to

Vou, Il. Cc Egypt,

386 OBSERVATIONS IN A

Egypt, the fight of Naples on the return
home would probably afford a like fenfation
of proximity: and I recollect, one of the gen-
tlemen who had been with Admiral Anfon
round the world told us, that when he came
back as near as our Eaft India fettlements, he
confidered the voyage as finifhed, and all his
toils at an end—{fo is my little book; and
(if Italy may be confidered, upon Sherlock’s
principle, as a fort of academy-figure fet up
for us all to draw from) my defign of it may
have a chance to go in the portfolio with the
reft, after its exhibition-day is over.

With regard to the general effect travelling
has upon the human mind, it is different with
different people. Brydone has obferved, that
the magnetic needle lofes her habits upon the
heights of tna, nor ever more regains her
partiality for the zorth, till again newly
touched by the loadftone: it is fo with many
men who have lived long from home ; they
find, like Imogen,

That there’s living out of Britain ;

and if they return to it after an abfence of
feveral years, bring back with them an alien-
I ated

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 387

ated mind—this is not well. Others there
are, who, being accuftomed to live a con-
fiderable time in places where they have not
the fmalleft intention to fix for ever, but on
the contrary firmly refolve to leave /ometime,
learn to treat the world as a man treats his
miftrefs, whom he likes well enough, but has
no defign to marry, and of courfe never pro-
vides for—this is not well neither. A third
fet gain the love of hurrying perpetually from
place to place ; living familiarly with all, but
intimately with none ; till confounding their
own ideas (ftill undifclofed) of right and
wrong, they learn to think virtue and vice
ambulatory, as Browne fays; profefs that
climate and conftitution regulate men’s ac-
tions, till they try to perfuade their com-
panions into a belief moft welcome to them-
felves, that the will of God in one place is by
no means his will in another; and moft re-
femble in their whirling fancies a boy’s top I
once faw fhewn by a profeflor who read us a
leGure upon opticks ; it was painted in re-
gular ftripes round like a narrow ribbon, red,
blue, green, and yellow ; we fet it a-{pinning
by direction of our philofopher, who, whip-
ping it merrily about, obtained as a general

Cc 2 -- = CLLEGE

388 OBSERVATIONS IN A

effe&t the total privation of all the four co-
lours, fo diftin& at the beginning of its tour;
—it refembled a dirty white !

With thefe reflexions and recollections we
drove forward to Calais, where I left the
following lines at our inn:

Over mountains, rivers, vallies,

Here are we return’d to Calais ;

After all their taunts and malice,
_Enr’ring fafe the gates of Calais ; %
While, conftrain’d, our captain dallies,
Waiting for a wind at Calais,

Mufe! prepare fome fprightly fallies
To divert ennui at Calais.

Turkifh fhips, Venetian gallies,

Have we feen fince laft at Calais ;

But tho’ Hogarth (rogue who rallies !)
Ridicules the French at Calais,

We, who’ve walk’d o’er many a palace,
Quite well content return to Calais ;
For, ftriking honeftly the tallies,
There’s little choice ’twixt them and Calais.

It would have been gracelefs not to give
thefe lines a companion on the other fide the
water, like Dean Swift’s diftich before and
after he climbed Penmanmaur: thefe verfes
were therefore written, and I believe ftill re-
main, in an apartment of the Ship inn:

é He

JOURNEY THROUGH GERMANY. 389

He whom fair winds have wafted over,
Firft hails his native land at Dover,

And doubts not but he fhall difcover
Pleafure in ev’ry path round Dover ;
Envies the happy crows which-hover
About old Shakefpeare’s cliff at Dover;
Nor once reflects that each young rover
Feels juft the fame, return’d to Dover.
From this fond dream he’ll foon recover
When debts fhall drive him back to Dover,
Hoping, though poor, to live in clover,
Once fafely paft the ftraits of Dover.

But he alone’s his country’s lover,

Who, abfent long, returns to Dover,
And can by fair experience prove her
The beft he has found fince laft at Dover.

THE END.

Ve ie
Ststroatcagh
:

Cc 3

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